CardioExchange Archive

February 1st, 2012

Meta-Analysis Confirms Benefits of Statins in Women

Larry Husten, PHD

Although clinical trials have consistently found a beneficial effects for statins, some critics have questioned the strength of the evidence in women, who are often under-represented in clinical trials.  A large new meta-analysis published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology provides the best evidence yet that the relative reductions in events observed in men […]

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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 from […]

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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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January 25th, 2012

FDA Rejects Proposed Chronic Kidney Disease Indication for Vytorin

Larry Husten, PHD

The FDA rejected a new indication for Merck’s Vytorin and Zetia (ezetimibe plus simvastatin and ezetimibe alone) in chronic kidney disease patients. As a consolation prize, however, the agency approved a new label for Vytorin that will incorporate the results of SHARP (Study of Heart and Renal Protection), which found that the drug combination reduced the incidence […]

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January 24th, 2012

Black Tea Found to Lower Blood Pressure

Larry Husten, PHD

A new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine provides the best evidence yet that drinking black tea can lower blood pressure. Jonathan M. Hodgson and colleagues randomized 95 regular tea drinkers to 3 cups per day of either black tea (containing 429 mg of polyphenols and 96 mg of caffeine) or placebo. At 3 and 6 […]

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January 23rd, 2012

Rita Redberg and Roger Blumenthal Clash Over Statins for Primary Prevention in the Wall Street Journal

Larry Husten, PHD

The debate over whether statins should be used for primary prevention moved to the Wall Street Journal with opposing perspectives from cardiologists Roger Blumenthal and Rita Redberg. Blumenthal argues that “there is a mountain of high-quality scientific evidence” to support the use of statins in people without known heart disease but “demonstrated to be at high risk for […]

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January 19th, 2012

Are We Ready to Stop Treating Cholesterol Levels and Start Treating Risk?

Harlan M. Krumholz, MD, SM

With the advent of ATPIV, should we stick with determining treatment based on LDL levels or is time for a new paradigm based on a more nuanced understanding of risk?

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January 17th, 2012

Cangrelor Proposed as Bridge to Surgery

Larry Husten, PHD

As a potent and reversible platelet inhibitor, cangrelor has been proposed for use in a bridging strategy for patients scheduled for surgery who are currently taking clopidogrel or another thienopyridine. To test this strategy, the BRIDGE investigators randomized 210 ACS or stent patients awaiting CABG and taking a thienopyridine to receive either cangrelor or placebo for at […]

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January 12th, 2012

The Safety of the Long Distance Runner

Larry Husten, PHD

Long distance runners may be lonely but they are not at high risk for sudden cardiac arrest, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The RACER (Race Associated Cardiac Arrest Event Registry) investigators analyzed data from 10.9 million registered participants in marathons and half-marathons that took place in the U.S. during the first decade of this century. […]

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January 11th, 2012

ASSERT Sheds Light on the Role of Subclinical AF in Stroke

Larry Husten, PHD

A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine sheds some much-needed light on the precise role of subclinical atrial fibrillation (AF) in the prognosis and development of ischemic stroke. ASSERT (Asymptomatic Atrial Fibrillation and Stroke Evaluation in Pacemaker Patients and the Atrial Fibrillation Reduction Atrial Pacing Trial) followed 2580 patients with a newly implanted pacemaker or ICD […]

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