CardioExchange Archive

November 16th, 2011

AHA Lessons on Emotions and Heart Disease: Depressing Data but Hopeful Trends

Amit Shah, MD, MSCR

Several Cardiology Fellows who are attending AHA.11 this week are blogging together on CardioExchange.  The Fellows include Revathi Balakrishnan, Eiman Jahangir, John Ryan (moderator), and Amit Shah. Read the previous post here. Check back often to learn about the biggest buzz in Orlando. The many studies and sessions devoted to depression and heart disease at AHA — […]

---

September 15th, 2011

Xanthelasmata Identified as Independent CV Risk Factor

Larry Husten, PHD

In a large new study from Denmark, xanthelasmata (raised yellow patches around the eyelids) but not arcus cornae (white or grey rings around the cornea) was found to be an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. In an article in BMJ, Mette Christoffersen and colleagues report on 12,745 adults in Copenhagen without cardiovascular disease at baseline who were […]

---

June 25th, 2011

Limited Benefit Found for Early Aggressive Management of Diabetes

Larry Husten, PHD

In the ADDITION-Europe trial, 3055 patients without diabetes were randomized to either routine care or screening followed by intensive treatment of multiple risk factors. The results were presented at the American Diabetes Association meeting and published online in the Lancet. After five years, cardiovascular risk factors — HbA1c, lipids, and blood pressure — were “slightly but significantly better in the […]

---

November 10th, 2010

Alzheimer’s Disease and Cholesterol: A Tricky Relationship

Larry Husten, PHD

A recent study in Neurology found that cholesterol levels in mid-life were not linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease in older age. In fact, the study by Michelle Mielke and colleagues found that large drops in cholesterol levels in old age were a harbinger of Alzheimer’s. CardioExchange asked Cynthia Carlsson, Assistant Professor and Alzheimer’s researcher […]

---

October 4th, 2010

Gene Expression Test Brings Modest Improvement to Patient Classification

Larry Husten, PHD

A gene expression test can improve the prediction of CAD but may not be clinically useful, according to results of the Personalized Risk Evaluation and Diagnosis in the Coronary Tree (PREDICT) study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The PREDICT investigators, led by Eric Topol, evaluated a gene expression test based on 23 genes […]

---

October 1st, 2010

Chronic Kidney Disease and Cardiovascular Risk

Larry Husten, PHD

People with early-stage chronic kidney disease are at elevated risk for cardiovascular disease, according to a new study published in BMJ. Researchers from the U.K. and Iceland followed 17,000 adults in Reykjavik for a median of 24 years and found that people with chronic kidney disease at baseline had significantly elevated risk for cardiovascular events, […]

---

September 29th, 2010

How Are You Managing Co-Morbid Conditions?

Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS

Some of you may remember a 2005 paper in JAMA, in which relevant clinical practice guidelines were applied to a hypothetical 79-year-old woman. This woman had multiple co-morbid conditions, otherwise known as multimorbidity, including COPD, type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, hypertension, and osteoarthritis. The authors surmised that, if guideline-directed care were followed, this hypothetical patient would be […]

---

September 6th, 2010

What’s at the Heart of This Patient’s Problem?

Anju Nohria, MD and James Fang, MD

The patient is a 53-year-old lawyer with no cardiac risk factors other than a 70 pack-year history of smoking. He has a known history of diverticulitis with prior gastrointestinal bleeding and presented with lightheadedness and bright red blood per rectum. Initial evaluation revealed a drop in his hematocrit from 43% to 39%. He underwent a […]

---

August 20th, 2010

A “Good” Heart…

John Mandrola, MD, FACC

John Mandrola, an electrophysiologist and avid cyclist, usually writes about cycling in the Wednesday posts to his blog, Dr. John. Here he examines how antagonism relates to carotid thickness. This Wednesday, it will be easy to combine cycling and medicine. When I saw this study that linked antagonistic personality traits and cardiovascular risk, it was simply impossible […]

---

August 11th, 2010

What Do Cardiologists Need to Know About 9p21?

Jeffrey Lance Anderson, MD

CardioExchange welcomes Jeffrey Anderson to discuss his recent editorial in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology on  the 9p21 locus and CHD. Dr. Anderson and co-author Benjamin Horne carefully evaluated the relationship of 9p21 to CHD  and conclude that 9p21 appears to be an initiator of and may be a promoter of CHD, […]

---