CardioExchange Archive

June 20th, 2012

Reality Check: The ORIGIN of Spin in a Randomized Trial

Steven Coca, DO, MS

When the facts from a randomized controlled trial don’t match the spin, what’s the takeaway for clinicians in the trenches?

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June 19th, 2012

Is Chronic Kidney Disease a CHD Risk Equivalent?

Larry Husten, PHD

A study published in the Lancet provides new data about whether chronic kidney disease (CKD) should, like diabetes, be considered a coronary heart disease (CHD) risk equivalent. Marcello Tonelli and colleagues analyzed data from a population of 1.25 million people in Alberta, Canada. During a median follow-up of 4 years, 11,340 people were admitted to the hospital […]

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June 11th, 2012

Basal Insulin and Omega-3 Fatty Acids Fail to Improve Outcomes in Diabetics and Prediabetics

Larry Husten, PHD

A large new study has found no evidence of cardiovascular (CV) benefits for either basal insulin or omega-3 fatty acids in a population of people with diabetes or at risk for diabetes. Results of the ORIGIN (Outcome Reduction with Initial Glargine Intervention) study were presented today at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association […]

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June 9th, 2012

Transient Glucose Regulation Helps Prevent Progression to Diabetes in Prediabetics

Larry Husten, PHD

Prediabetics — people with impaired fasting glucose or impaired glucose tolerance — can reduce their high risk for progressing to diabetes if they achieve even a transient return to normal glucose regulation, according to results of the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study (DPPOS), presented at the American Diabetes Association meeting and published simultaneously online in the Lancet. Leigh Perreault […]

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March 26th, 2012

Bariatric Surgery Turns Back the Clock on Diabetes

Larry Husten, PHD

Two new randomized trials offer evidence that bariatric surgery is highly effective in obese patients with diabetes. The results, according to Paul Zimmet and K. George M.M. Alberti, writing in an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine, “are likely to have a major effect on future diabetes treatment.” In the STAMPEDE trial, which was presented at […]

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March 22nd, 2012

Uncertainty Over the Clinical Importance of the Diabetes Risk of Diuretics and Statins

Harlan M. Krumholz, MD, SM

With all of the hullaballoo about statins and diabetes last week I wanted to point out a paper that was published online this week in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. This study examined the long-term effects of incident diabetes on cardiovascular outcomes in patients enrolled in ALLHAT. As you may remember, this trial included more […]

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March 16th, 2012

Helping Patients Understand the Statins Controversy

Harlan M. Krumholz, MD, SM

After the Topol op-ed in the New York Times last week I began to get a lot of inquiries about the safety of statins. At the beginning of his piece he emphasizes that our use of statins could cause a “sharp increase in the incidence of Type 2 diabetes.” At the end, he states emphatically that “the […]

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March 6th, 2012

Another Round in the Debate on Diabetes and Statins

Yoni Freedhoff, MD

Let me start by saying that I am proud to have Eric Topol as a friend and a trusted advisor over the past 20 years. His work has been an inspiration to cardiovascular health professionals for several decades. His new book, The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care, […]

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March 5th, 2012

Statins and Diabetes: Real Concern or Much Ado About Nothing?

Larry Husten, PHD

In a New York Times Op-Ed piece on Monday, Eric Topol comments on last week’s announcement by the FDA that it was changing the label for statins. Topol focuses on the new warning that statins raise the risk of diabetes. He opens with a provocative statement: We’re overdosing on cholesterol-lowering statins, and the consequence could be a sharp increase […]

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January 30th, 2012

Selections from Richard Lehman’s Weekly Review: Week of January 30th

Richard Lehman, BM, BCh, MRCGP

This week’s topics include lifetime cardiovascular risks, anticoagulation self-monitoring, opting for thrombolytics over late transfer for PCI, exercise’s antidepressant effect, and the worry that statins can induce diabetes.

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