CardioExchange Archive

September 15th, 2014

New Observations on Saxagliptin

Benjamin Scirica, MD MPH

Benjamin Scirica discusses his study group’s new analysis of data from the SAVOR-TIMI 53 randomized, placebo-controlled trial of saxagliptin in patients with type 2 diabetes.

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September 11th, 2014

FDA Approves New Weight Loss Drug

Larry Husten, PHD

The FDA announced today that it had approved Contrave, the long-awaited and much-disputed weight loss drug.  Contrave is a combination of two drugs already approved for other indications: naltrexone hydrochloride, which is used to combat alcohol and opioid dependence, and bupropion, which is used to treat depression and seasonal affective disorder and as an aid to smoking cessation treatment. […]

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September 10th, 2014

FDA Advisory Panel Offers Cautious Support for Polypill

Larry Husten, PHD

The controversial polypill took one step closer to reaching the U.S. market after receiving a mostly positive reception from the FDA’s Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee on Wednesday. The idea for the polypill– which in this case would be composed of aspirin, a statin, and one or more blood pressure drugs– has been kicking around for […]

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September 9th, 2014

Lower Rate of Microvascular Complications in Statin Users Who Develop Diabetes

Larry Husten, PHD

In recent years, the medical community has become increasingly aware that taking statins can result in slightly higher glucose levels, and this can lead to a diagnosis of diabetes in a small but statistically significant number of people. But it has been unclear whether the diagnosis of diabetes in people taking statins also places them […]

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August 31st, 2014

Preliminary Outcomes Results For PCSK9 Inhibitor

Larry Husten, PHD

Amid a slew of new data demonstrating yet again that PCSK9 inhibitors lower LDL cholesterol—drastically and in a wide variety of different patient populations—data from one trial offers the first suggestion that the drugs may in fact improve cardiovascular outcomes. But the analysis, the authors cautioned, is a post-hoc analysis of a trial neither designed nor […]

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August 25th, 2014

Rise in Popularity of E-Cigarettes Sparks Concerns and Recommendations

Larry Husten, PHD

The recent dramatic rise in popularity of e-cigarettes threatens to reverse hard-fought progress in the war against smoking, according to a new policy statement from the American Heart Association. “E-cigarettes have caused a major shift in the tobacco-control landscape,” said the lead author of the statement, Aruni Bhatnagar, chair of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Louisville. But the […]

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August 19th, 2014

Do Patients Really Have to Fast Before Lipid Testing?

Sripal Bangalore, MD, MHA

Harlan Krumholz interviews Sripal Bangalore about his research group’s study of the prognostic value of non-fasting lipid panels.

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August 18th, 2014

An Expert’s Perspective: Why Salt Is Not Like Tobacco and Why Guidelines Are Tricky

Larry Husten, PHD

At the center of this week’s renewed debate on salt was Salim Yusuf, the longtime influential and occasionally controversial cardiology researcher and clinical trialist based at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. I spoke with Yusuf before the publication of the New England Journal of Medicine papers, which include his own two papers from the PURE study. Yusuf was troubled by […]

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August 18th, 2014

New Analysis of Old Study Fuels Debate Over Blood Pressure Guidelines

Larry Husten, PHD

In the last year new guidelines relating to cardiovascular disease have been the subject of intense criticism and debate. The status of the blood pressure guidelines has been particularly contentious, since several different groups have published contradictory guidelines, while several authors of the most prominent group, the Eighth Joint National Committee, published an impassioned dissent […]

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August 18th, 2014

Advice on Implementing the New Cholesterol Guidelines

Sidney C. Smith, MD

CardioExchange’s Harlan M. Krumholz interviews Sidney C. Smith, coauthor of a new article, published in JACC, that reviews the major findings and recommendations of the 2013 cholesterol guidelines, as well as the recommendations’ implications for risk assessment, LDL lowering, and statin use. Krumholz: How have the new guidelines changed your practice?  Smith: The new focus on statins, […]

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