CardioExchange Archive

March 20th, 2013

Controversial PFO Closure Trials Published in NEJM

Larry Husten, PHD

Two controversial trials testing PFO closure in patients with cryptogenic stroke missed their primary endpoints but contained suggestions of possible benefit.

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March 20th, 2013

High Potency Statins Linked to Increased Risk for Acute Kidney Injury

Larry Husten, PHD

Although the beneficial effects of high-potency statins have been well-characterized in clinical trials, these same trials have lacked the power to illuminate rare but potentially important adverse events. A suggestion of one such area of concern, acute kidney injury, was first raised in the SATURN trial. Now, a new study published in BMJ provides further information about this […]

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March 18th, 2013

Vena Cava Filters: Little Evidence and Wide Variation in Use

Larry Husten, PHD

Despite the absence of any evidence demonstrating benefit or showing how best to use them, vena cava filters (VCF) are used in most hospitals. Now a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine suggests that this same lack of evidence results in an extremely broad rate of use in different hospitals. An accompanying viewpoint raises the […]

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March 18th, 2013

Selections from Richard Lehman’s Literature Review: March 18th

Richard Lehman, BM, BCh, MRCGP

This week’s topics include the association between smoking cessation and weight change with CV disease among those with and without diabetes, the risk of ischemic heart disease in women after radiotherapy for breast cancer, and more.

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March 15th, 2013

Azithro a No Go?

Richard Joseph Kovacs, MD

When I am faced with a patient who needs an antibiotic, and there is an alternative antibiotic with similar efficacy and lower QT risk, I will choose the antibiotic with lower QT risk, and I’m especially careful with patients with certain characteristics that put them at increased risk.

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March 15th, 2013

FDA Studying Whether Certain Diabetes Drugs Pose Pre-Cancer Risk

The FDA is investigating whether diabetes drugs in the class known as incretin mimetics pose an increased risk for pancreatic duct metaplasia. The agency is looking at unpublished data on pancreatic toxicity in a small number of tissue samples taken from patients with diabetes who died. It will examine the researchers’ methodology and the samples […]

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March 13th, 2013

FDA Officials Calm Concerns Over Excessive Bleeding with Dabigatran

Larry Husten, PHD

Concerns over excessive bleeding complications with dabigatran (Pradaxa, Boehringer Ingelheim) as compared with warfarin are most likely due to the heightened sensitivity and vigilance that can accompany a new drug, according to FDA officials in a perspective published online in the New England Journal of Medicine. “We believe that the large number of reported cases of bleeding […]

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March 13th, 2013

Radiotherapy for Breast Cancer Increases Heart Disease Risk

Larry Husten, PHD

The increased risk of radiotherapy for breast cancer seen in this NEJM study may just be the tip of the iceberg.

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March 11th, 2013

Selections from Richard Lehman’s Literature Review: March 11th

Richard Lehman, BM, BCh, MRCGP

This week’s topics include antiplatelet therapy to prevent CV events and mortality in those with intermittent claudication, endovascular treatment for stroke, and more.

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March 10th, 2013

Was Atherosclerosis the Real Curse of the Mummy?

Larry Husten, PHD

For more of our ACC.13 coverage of late-breaking clinical trials, interviews with the authors of the most important research, and blogs from our fellows on the most interesting presentations at the meeting, check out our Coverage Headquarters. From a growing evidence base of mummies, researchers are now concluding that atherosclerosis may have been common in […]

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