CardioExchange Archive

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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March 15th, 2015

More Information Emerges About the PCSK9 Inhibitors

Larry Husten, PHD

New information emerged today about two new cholesterol-lowering drugs that have been attracting a lot of attention. Data about the PCSK9 inhibitors — evolocumab, under development by Amgen, and alirocumab, under development by Sanofi and Regeneron — were presented at the American College of Cardiology meeting in San Diego and published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine. […]

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February 11th, 2015

New US Guidelines Will Lift Limits on Dietary Cholesterol

Larry Husten, PHD

The influential Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee has recommended that limitations on dietary cholesterol be removed from the upcoming 2015 edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Recommendations to reduce dietary cholesterol have been a mainstay of the USDA and other guidelines for many years, starting with guidance from the American Heart Association in the 1960s. The proposed […]

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January 13th, 2015

40-Year Effort in One Rural County to Prevent Cardiovascular Disease Found Successful

Larry Husten, PHD

A 40-year program in one poor rural county to combat cardiovascular disease appears to have been successful, resulting in reduced rates of hospitalization and death compared with other counties in the same state over the same period. The new findings are described in a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Beginning in 1970, Franklin County, […]

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November 17th, 2014

IMPROVE-IT Meets Endpoint and Demonstrates Real But Modest Clinical Benefit for Ezetimibe

Larry Husten, PHD

After all the waiting and all the controversy it turned out to be pretty simple. The IMPROVE-IT trial did what it set out to do and reached its primary endpoint. The benefit wasn’t very big or impressive but it will be enough to put to rest concerns that ezetimibe might have been an expensive placebo […]

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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 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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July 16th, 2014

HPS2-THRIVE: The Final Chapter in the Niacin Story?

Nicholas Downing, MD and Harlan M. Krumholz, MD, SM

Findings from HPS2-THRIVE raise uncomfortable questions for physicians.

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June 16th, 2014

Case: Smoking-Related CV Risk and the Need for Statin Therapy in a Former Smoker Who Quit Long Ago

Jay D Shah, MD, Neil J Stone, MD and James Fang, MD

Jay Shah presents the case of a 66-year-old woman who quit smoking 15 years ago and is seen for a cardiovascular risk assessment.

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May 5th, 2014

Two Experts Look at a Failed HDL Trial

William Edward Boden, MD and Prediman K Shah, MD

William Boden and PK Shah discuss the CHI-SQUARE trial, which failed to show a benefit for an HDL mimetic.

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