CardioExchange Archive

January 30th, 2013

How Insurance Status Affects Treatment for Patients with CAD

Kim G. Smolderen, PhD, Paul S. Chan, MD, MS and John Ryan, MD

Does a patient’s insurance status affect a physician’s decision to prescribe evidence-based therapies for CAD?

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January 28th, 2013

Study Warns Against Dual Blockade of Renin-Angiotensin System in Heart Failure and Hypertension

Larry Husten, PHD

The enormous success of ACE inhibitors in hypertension and heart failure spurred hope that adding a second drug to block the renin-angiotensin system would yield improved outcomes. Although definitive evidence supporting dual blockade of the renin-angiotensin system has never been found, more than 200,000 patients in the U.S. currently receive this therapy. Now a large new meta-analysis […]

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January 10th, 2013

Acute Kidney Injury Associated With Dual Antihypertensive Therapy And NSAIDs

Larry Husten, PHD

NSAIDs seem to increase the risks for acute kidney injury when taken along with antihypertensive therapy consisting of a diuretic plus an ACE inhibitior or an ARB.

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August 8th, 2012

Selections from Richard Lehman’s Literature Review: August 8th

Richard Lehman, BM, BCh, MRCGP

This week’s topics include heart failure and depression, endoscopic vs. open vein-graft harvest for CABG, linagliptin vs. glimepiride in those with type-2 diabetes, weight gain with smoking cessation, ACE inhibitors and pneumonia risk, and the effect of speech therapy after stroke.

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July 13th, 2012

Meta-Analysis: ACE Inhibitors Associated with Lower Pneumonia Risk

Angiotensin-converting–enzyme inhibitors may offer some protection against pneumonia, according to a BMJ meta-analysis. An editorialist isn’t so sure. Researchers looked at almost 40 studies — including cohort studies, case-control studies, and randomized trials — that reported pneumonia outcomes after use of ACE inhibitors, angiotensin-receptor blockers, and control treatments. The data revealed that ACE inhibitors conferred a roughly 30% […]

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July 3rd, 2012

Many CHF Patients Not Receiving – Or Getting Benefits From – High Dose ACE Inhibitors and ARBs

Larry Husten, PHD

Although current guidelines recommend that ACE inhibitors and angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs) be used in high doses in patients with congestive heart failure, many CHF patients currently receive lower than recommended doses of these drugs. In a research letter published online in Archives of Internal Medicine, investigators in Montreal analyzed data from 43,405 patients with a first hospital […]

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February 13th, 2012

Selections from Richard Lehman’s Weekly Review: Week of February 13th

Richard Lehman, BM, BCh, MRCGP

This week’s topics include communicating with patients about screening and treatment and the association between blood-pressure-lowering drugs and gout.

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October 19th, 2011

First-Trimester Hypertension, Not ACE Inhibitors, Linked to Birth Defects

Larry Husten, PHD

Although the teratogenic properties of ACE inhibitors in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy are well-documented, the effects of their use in the first trimester have been unclear. Now a study suggests that hypertension itself, rather than ACE inhibitors or other antihypertensive drugs, is the likely cause of an increased risk for birth defects […]

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November 1st, 2010

Mind the Gap: Real-World ACE Inhibitor Cough Much More Common Than Listed on Labels

Larry Husten, PHD

The real-world incidence of ACE inhibitor-associated cough is much higher than the reported rate on drug labels and printed in the Physicians’ Desk Reference, according to a study published in the American Journal of Medicine. Sripal Bangalore and colleagues analyzed data from 125 published studies with ACE inhibitors including almost 200,000 patients. They found that […]

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