CardioExchange Archive

January 31st, 2012

Guiding TAVR into Clinical Practice

Steven Bailey, MD, Richard A. Lange, MD, MBA and L. David Hillis, MD

The ACC, AATS, SCAI, and STS have issued a critical consensus document to guide the use of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) as it enters clinical practice in the U.S. (see also our CardioExchange news coverage here). CardioExchange Interventional Cardiology moderators Rick Lange and David Hillis posed the following questions to writing committee member Steven R Bailey, the Janey Briscoe Distinguished Professor of […]

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January 31st, 2012

Consensus Document Provides Roadmap to Uptake of TAVR in U.S.

Larry Husten, PHD

Following the recent FDA approval of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), the ACC, AATS, SCAI, and STS — in conjunction with several other medical organizations — have released a critical consensus document to guide use of the new landmark procedure. “We have tried to collate the evidence into a coherent road map for judicious use, rational […]

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January 31st, 2012

Appropriate Use Criteria for Revascularization Updated

Larry Husten, PHD

The ACC, AHA, and other organizations have released updated appropriate use criteria for coronary revascularization. The 2012 Appropriate Use Criteria for Coronary Revascularization Focused Update incorporates data from the SYNTAX trial on the indications for PCI and CABG in patients with symptomatic, multivessel disease, as well as data from the CathPCI registry. Here are some of the […]

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January 30th, 2012

Very Large Observational Study Finds Significant Mortality Advantage for CABG Over PCI in High-Risk Patients

Larry Husten, PHD

Although PCI has a small, early mortality benefit compared to CABG in high-risk patients, after the first year a striking survival advantage for CABG develops, according to results of the ASCERT study, presented on Monday at the annual meeting of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS). Fred Edwards presented the high-risk subset of ASCERT (ACCF-STS Database […]

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January 30th, 2012

Selections from Richard Lehman’s Weekly Review: Week of January 30th

Richard Lehman, BM, BCh, MRCGP

This week’s topics include lifetime cardiovascular risks, anticoagulation self-monitoring, opting for thrombolytics over late transfer for PCI, exercise’s antidepressant effect, and the worry that statins can induce diabetes.

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January 26th, 2012

Follow the Fellows: Turning Points

William Kent Cornwell, MD, Kathryn Jesseca Lindley, MD, Aaron C. Earles, DO and Erica Sarah Spatz, MD, MHS

The fellows describe the challenging moments that brought them to select cardiology as their specialty.

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January 26th, 2012

NHLBI Launches Two Large Cardiac Arrest Treatment Trials

Larry Husten, PHD

The NHLBI today announced the launch of two large clinical trials evaluating treatments for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The Continuous Chest Compressions (CCC) trial will randomize 23,600 people with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest to either standard CPR or continuous chest compressions, both delivered by paramedics or fire fighters. In recent years, studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine,  JAMA, and the Lancet have provided […]

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January 26th, 2012

Big Drop in MI Incidence and Fatality in England

Larry Husten, PHD

Since 2002, the incidence of acute MI in England has dropped by one-half and the case fatality rate by one-third, according to a new study published in BMJ. The overall decline in deaths from MI is about equally due to improvements in the prevention of MI and the treatment of MI. Kate Smolina and colleagues analyzed data […]

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January 26th, 2012

Sizing Up Clinical Trials — Quickly and Intuitively

John E Brush, MD

A pharmaceutical sales rep comes to your office bringing lunch. He shows you a graphic stating that Multaq (dronedarone) reduced the primary endpoint in the ATHENA trial by 24%. The fine print shows an impressive P value: <0.0001. You come away satisfied that this drug looks good. You may not realize it, but you also […]

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January 25th, 2012

Huge Study Finds Risk Factors Do In Fact Predict Risk

Larry Husten, PHD

An enormous new meta-analysis confirms the important role that risk factors play over a lifetime in the development of cardiovascular disease. In a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Jarett Berry and colleagues report on the meta-analysis from the Cardiovascular Lifetime Risk Pooling Project, which contains data from 18 epidemiological studies including more than one-quarter million […]

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