CardioExchange Archive

January 13th, 2010

Wednesday January 12 Roundup: Diabetics in SYNTAX, Obesity in the USA

Larry Husten, PHD

Diabetics in SYNTAX: The one-year results of the subset of diabetic patients enrolled in the SYNTAX trial, the ongoing trial comparing PCI to CABG in patients with left main or multivessel disease for five years, were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Although the investigators found an increase in revascularizations in the PCI […]

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January 13th, 2010

Americans IGNORE prevention

JoAnne M. Foody, MD

The American Heart Association has issued its Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics 2010 Update, which underlines the fact that most Americans are ignoring prevention. While more than half a trillion dollars is spent annually on heart disease, little is spent on prevention. What can we do to change this? If more money were available for prevention, how do you think […]

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January 12th, 2010

Tuesday January 12 Roundup: Statin Adherence; FDA Panel Grills Nebivolol; CETP, CRP and APOE in dementia

Larry Husten, PHD

You can save twice as many lives by increasing adherence to already-prescribed statins than by expanding the pool of people eligible for statins, according to estimates by A Shroufi and JW Powles in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. The FDA Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee unanimously recommended that the FDA turn down a heart […]

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January 11th, 2010

Monday, January 11 Roundup: Variations in Guidelines, Too Much TV, and Too Much Salt

Larry Husten, PHD

Cardiovascular risk assessment guidelines are not always in agreement and may not always be reliable, according to a systematic review published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Only 16 of the 27 guidelines reported possible conflicts of interest and only 17 “showed considerable rigor.” In an accompanying comment, Sidney Smith wrote that future “progress will […]

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January 11th, 2010

COMPARE: Everolimus vs paclitaxel stents

Richard A. Lange, MD, MBA

In the recently published COMPARE trial, the use of second-generation everolimus-eluting stents, when compared with paclitaxel-eluting stents, was associated with a significant reduction in the risk of major adverse cardiac events at 1 year.  This difference was driven by a reduction in the rate of MI and repeat target vessel revascularization.  Interestingly, this reduction was […]

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January 8th, 2010

Friday Roundup: IMPROVE-IT Pushed Back, Statins not Beneficial for AS, Xience V Approved in Japan, New Format for Scientific Papers

Larry Husten, PHD

The much-discussed IMPROVE-IT trial comparing the combination of ezetimibe and simvastatin with simvastatin monotherapy in 18,000 patients won’t be completed until June 2013, a year later than previously announced. (Merck press release and FAQ) Another trial has found that statin therapy, this time using rosuvastatin 40 mg, was not beneficial in aortic stenosis. ASTRONOMER was […]

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January 7th, 2010

Thursday Roundup: COMPARE in the Lancet, Nebivolol for HF gets a rough FDA review, Phentermine/topiramate reduces sleep apnea in small study

Larry Husten, PHD

The COMPARE trial, published online in the Lancet, found that everolimus-eluting stents outperformed paclitaxel-eluting stents. The COMPARE investigators “suggest that paclitaxel-eluting stents should no longer be used in everyday clinical practice.” CardioBrief has an interesting comment from David Kandzari.The FDA released briefing documents for Monday’s Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee meeting to review a […]

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January 6th, 2010

Wednesday News Roundup: FDA to Reevaluate ESAs, Aspirin Underuse in REACH, & more…

Larry Husten, PHD

In an NEJM perspective, four FDA officials review the sorry history of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) and call for randomized trials to establish “the optimal hemoglobin target, dosing algorithm, and monitoring approach” for these drugs. They also announce that the FDA intends to convene an advisory panel in 2010 “to reevaluate the use of ESAs in the […]

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January 6th, 2010

Stent Gap Rap

Richard A. Lange, MD, MBA

According to a recent study using computed tomographic angiography (CTA), the incidence of so-called stent gaps — due to stent strut fracture or failure to overlap stents — is 17%.  These stent gaps are associated with an increased incidence of in-stent restenosis. Interestingly, stent gaps were identified in only 1% of routine coronary angiography procedures.   […]

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January 6th, 2010

Lp(a): Risk and Relevance

L. David Hillis, MD

Clarke et al. provide convincing evidence that plasma Lp(a) lipoprotein is causally related to coronary artery disease. What’s needed next? First, we need to assess whether knowledge of Lp(a) lipoprotein concentrations improves predictive discrimination over more traditional risk factors. Second, we need an intervention that selectively lowers plasma Lp(a) lipoprotein concentrations and a randomized clinical trial to assess its efficacy. Of currently FDA-approved […]

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