CardioExchange Archive

March 3rd, 2014

Pfizer Starts Testing for Over-the-Counter Atorvastatin

Larry Husten, PHD

Looking backward to improve its future, Pfizer will once again try to gain FDA approval to market its blockbuster drug, atorvastatin (Lipitor), over-the-counter (OTC). Peter Loftus reports in the Wall Street Journal that the company has started a clinical study to support the application for low-dose atorvastatin (10 mg). Over-the-counter statins have been unsuccessfully proposed in the past. Merck […]

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February 27th, 2014

U.K. Geriatrician: Statins, Antihypertensives “Greatly” Overprescribed for Adults 80 and Older

Nicholas Downing, MD

“The data strongly suggest that we are over-treating many healthy patients aged 80+ regarding stroke prevention,” concludes U.K. geriatrician Kit Byatt in a perspective published in Evidence-Based Medicine. Byatt offers a brief review of the evidence, noting that the large HYVET study in China and Europe showed only modest stroke-prevention benefits with antihypertensive therapy in those […]

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February 25th, 2014

Is Post-MI Statin Therapy Appropriately Intensive?

Suzanne V. Arnold, MD, MHA

Suzanne V. Arnold discusses her research group’s study of statin initiation, intensification, and maximization after acute myocardial infarction.

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February 17th, 2014

Another Satellite of JUPITER: Lipoprotein(a)

Amit Khera, MD

Amit V. Khera discusses his study group’s analysis of lipoprotein(a) concentrations and residual vascular risk among participants in the placebo-controlled JUPITER trial of rosuvastatin.

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February 3rd, 2014

Intensive BP, Lipid Lowering Does Not Protect Against Cognitive Decline in Diabetics

Nicholas Downing, MD

Intensive treatment of blood pressure or cholesterol does not slow the rate of cognitive decline in adults with type 2 diabetes, according to a substudy of the ACCORD trial published in JAMA Internal Medicine. Some 3000 older adults with poorly controlled diabetes, high cardiovascular risk, and no evidence of cognitive impairment were assigned to one of […]

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January 27th, 2014

Prevention Guidelines in Practice: Vignette 3

Siqin Ye, MD

Tell us how you’d determine this 41-year-old African American woman’s 10-year CVD risk, and if you’d put her on a statin.

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December 23rd, 2013

Selections from Richard Lehman’s Literature Review: December 23rd

Richard Lehman, BM, BCh, MRCGP

This week’s topics include dual-antiplatelet therapy after zotarolimus-eluting stents, low-dose dopamine or low-dose nesiritide in acute HF with renal dysfunction, and more.

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December 23rd, 2013

Statins: Targeting Risk, but Risking Diabetes?

Emma Morton-Eggleston, MD, MPH and Richard Lehman, BM, BCh, MRCGP

Emma Morton-Eggleston and Richard Lehman share their correspondence with us, in which they debate whether it’s worth using statins to target CV risk if they might increase other risks, such as diabetes.

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December 16th, 2013

Selections from Richard Lehman’s Literature Review: December 16th

Richard Lehman, BM, BCh, MRCGP

This week’s topics include several trials of genotyping to guide starting doses of vitamin K antagonists, statins for primary prevention of CVD, and more.

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December 13th, 2013

Dispatch From the Wild Frontier of the Statin Wars

Larry Husten, PHD

The long simmering controversy over the relative benefits and harms of statins has heated to a high boil with the release of the new AHA/ACC U.S. guidelines. But nowhere is the battle more intense right now than in Australia, where, according to the National Heart Foundation, a TV show may be the cause of 2,000 heart attacks […]

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