CardioExchange Archive

October 21st, 2014

Study Behind the Green Coffee Bean Diet Craze Retracted

Larry Husten, PHD

The “scientific” paper that helped ignite the green coffee bean diet craze has been retracted. The details of the retraction and the full background of the story were fully reported by Ivan Oransky on Retraction Watch. The paper, published in Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity: Targets and Therapy, purported to report the substantial weight loss findings of a randomized, […]

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April 29th, 2014

Cardiac Stem Cell Therapy: A House of Cards About to Fall?

Larry Husten, PHD

For more than a decade, cardiac stem cell therapy has attracted an enormous amount of attention, promise, and research dollars. Now an original and important new study published in BMJ finds that many of the most promising results in the field are illusory and that the potential benefits of stem cells to treat heart disease are probably […]

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September 27th, 2013

Saying Sorry May Not Be Good Enough for Novartis

Larry Husten, PHD

Novartis has issued a formal apology over misconduct relating to valsartan (Diovan) research in Japan, but that apology does not appear likely to satisfy the Japanese Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, which plans to fully investigate the company’s role in the scandal. If necessary, ministry officials are prepared to raid the company’s offices in Japan. A Novartis official apologized to […]

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September 5th, 2013

Lancet Formally Retracts Jikei Heart Study of Valsartan

Larry Husten, PHD

The Lancet has formally retracted the Jikei Heart Study paper, originally published in 2007. The retraction had been widely anticipated for more than a month, after a series of news reports in Japan made it clear that the long-simmering controversy over scientific misconduct involving the Novartis blood pressure lowering drug valsartan (Diovan) had come to a full boil. […]

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August 20th, 2013

A Pathway to Preventing Research Fraud

Harlan M. Krumholz, MD, SM

Is the road to fraud-free research paved with publicly accessible raw data?

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July 30th, 2013

More Bad News for Valsartan

Larry Husten, PHD

In the last few days, more bad news about valsartan (Diovan, Novartis) has emerged. Another major study conducted in Japan — the Jikei Heart Study — will be retracted, and Japanese health authorities said they were investigating severe skin reactions associated with use of the drug. The new events are only the latest problems for the drug […]

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July 2nd, 2013

Hundreds of Questions About the Integrity of Stem-Cell Research Group

Larry Husten, PHD

Serious questions have been raised about the integrity and validity of research conducted by a well-established German stem-cell research group. An article in the International Journal of Cardiology exhaustively details a multitude of discrepancies and contradictions in papers from the group. Further, the revelation of such widespread misconduct may lead to broader, disturbing questions about the reliability of […]

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April 10th, 2013

Scientific Misconduct: From Darwin and Mendel to Poldermans and Matsubara

Larry Husten, PHD

Responding to recent episodes of scientific misconduct in cardiovascular research involving once prominent cardiovascular researchers, the editor of the European Heart Journal, Thomas Lüscher, has written an editorial discussing the significance of the new cases and placing them in a historical context that includes allegations of scientific misconduct by Mendel and Darwin, among many others. Lüscher writes that scientific misdoncuct […]

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January 8th, 2013

Two Retractions for Embattled Chief Investigator of KYOTO HEART Study

Larry Husten, PHD

The editor of Circulation Journal, the official journal of the Japanese Circulation Society (and not to be confused with the American Heart Association’s [AHA’s] better known Circulation) has announced the retraction of two substudies from the KYOTO HEART Study. The papers, according to the editor, “contain a number of serious errors in data analysis.” The announcement contained no additional information about […]

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October 9th, 2012

Erasmus Medical Center Releases Final Report on Cardiovascular Research Scandal

Larry Husten, PHD

After an extensive investigation, a large medical center in the Netherlands has confirmed earlier charges of research misconduct against a prominent cardiovascular researcher. On Tuesday, Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam released a final report on the scientific integrity of trials conducted by Don Poldermans, a well-known and highly prolific Dutch cardiovascular researcher. The final report contains numerous […]

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