CardioExchange Archive

May 13th, 2015

Get a Grip: Global Study Finds Grip Strength Is a Simple and Powerful Predictor Of Death

Larry Husten, PHD

A large global study finds that grip strength is a simple, powerful, and broadly applicable test that can help predict the risk of death and cardiovascular disease. The new findings from the Prospective Urban-Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study were based on data from nearly 140,000 adults in 17 countries. The study participants had their grip strength […]

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May 12th, 2015

Diet Drug Study Crashes and Burns in the Wake of Leaked Results

Larry Husten, PHD

The ill-fated Light trial, which was supposed to examine the cardiovascular outcomes of the weight loss drug Contrave, a combination of naltrexone and bupropion marketed by Orexigen and Takeda, came to a spectacular halt today. The action was probably inevitable given the extreme controversy generated earlier this year when it became known that Orexigen had widely disseminated results from an early […]

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May 7th, 2015

Advocates Say Precision Medicine Could Lead to Enormous Benefits

Larry Husten, PHD

Personalized and precision medicine (PPM) could deliver hundreds of billions of dollars worth of improved health in the next 50 years in the United States, writes Victor Dzau, the new president of the Institute of Medicine, and coauthors in a Viewpoint published in the Lancet. The authors used a health simulation model to estimate the effect of […]

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May 1st, 2015

Red Yeast Rice: Let’s Lower Cholesterol with Unknown Amounts of a Statin

Anthony Pearson, MD

Anthony Pearson wonders why some patients would choose unregulated “natural” cholesterol-lowering dietary supplements over safe and effective prescription statins.

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April 30th, 2015

More Evidence Linking Sugared Drinks to Diabetes

Larry Husten, PHD

A new study uncovers some potentially important new details about the association between sugared drinks and diabetes. In a paper published in Diabetologia, researchers in the U.K. report on more than 10 years of followup of more than 25,000 adults. During the course of the study 847 participants went on to develop diabetes. Instead of relying on a […]

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April 28th, 2015

Cardiovascular Outcomes with Sitagliptin: No Better or Worse Than Conventional Care

Larry Husten, PHD

Late Monday afternoon, Merck released the top line results of TECOS, the cardiovascular outcomes trial with its diabetes drug sitagliptin (Januvia).  The company said that the trial “achieved its primary endpoint of non-inferiority for the composite cardiovascular (CV) endpoint.” Merck announced only one additional detail: “Among secondary endpoints,” they reported, “there was no increase in hospitalization for heart […]

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April 27th, 2015

More Preliminary Signs That PCSK9 Inhibitors May Improve Outcomes

Larry Husten, PHD

A new analysis of available data from early trials with PCSK9 inhibitors adds to the growing evidence showing that this much-anticipated new class of drugs dramatically lowers LDL cholesterol and offers additional preliminary evidence showing that they are safe and may confer a mortality benefit. But, the authors and other outside experts warn, the outcome […]

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April 15th, 2015

Diabetes Drugs Get Neither Restrictions Nor Endorsements from FDA Committee

Larry Husten, PHD

Two diabetes drugs survived a meeting of the FDA’s Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee on Tuesday. Rejecting recommendations from critics that the drugs should either be withdrawn or get new restrictions on use, the committee voted against any harsh measures, recommending only that information from two neutral clinical  trials be added to the drugs’ labels. The two trials were […]

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April 6th, 2015

Weight-Loss Programs: Slim Evidence and Thin Results

Larry Husten, PHD

A new study concludes that some weight-loss programs may be slightly better than other programs but that in the long run none of the programs have been able to show a substantial weight loss over a sustained period. For even the best programs, an editorialist writes, “weight loss is modest and likely below patients’ expectations.” In […]

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April 6th, 2015

Cardiac Arrest During Exercise in Middle-Aged People

Larry Husten, PHD

Dropping dead while exercising is a common fear, especially among middle-aged men. Unfortunately there have been limited data on the precise rate of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in middle-aged people and little understanding about the medical history of the victims of SCA. Now a new study fills in some important gaps in knowledge and shows that this […]

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