CardioExchange Archive

April 18th, 2012

Preoperative Statins Found to Reduce AF and Length of Stay but Not Mortality

Larry Husten, PHD

In a systematic review published in the Cochrane Library, investigators at the University of Cologne in Germany analyzed data from 11 trials that tested the effects of preoperative statins in 984 patients undergoing heart surgery. Preoperative administration of statins reduced the risk for developing atrial fibrillation (AF) and shortened the length of stay in the ICU and in […]

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April 2nd, 2012

Selections from Richard Lehman’s Literature Review: Week of April 2nd

Richard Lehman, BM, BCh, MRCGP

This week’s topics include cardiovascular risk among U.S. adults and statin-treated patients, mobility in those with type-2 diabetes, the causal association between IL6R-related pathways and CVD, and promoting exercise.

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March 22nd, 2012

Promising Phase 1 Results for New Monoclonal Antibody to PCSK9

Larry Husten, PHD

Promising results from very early studies with an experimental new cholesterol-lowering drug, a monoclonal antibody to PCSK9, have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Evan Stein and colleagues report the results of two single-dose studies in which the drug, REGN727, was administered intravenously or subcutaneously to healthy subjects. In a third, randomized, placebo-controlled, dose-ranging trial, […]

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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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March 2nd, 2012

Statins and Protease Inhibitors May Interact, Causing Rhabdomyolysis

Physician's First Watch, CardioExchange Staff

The FDA is warning again about interactions between protease inhibitors and certain statins that can lead to rhabdomyolysis. Protease inhibitors are used to treat HIV and hepatitis C. In a safety communication, the agency published a list of statins that should either be avoided or whose dosing levels should be limited when coadministered with protease inhibitors. […]

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February 28th, 2012

FDA Revises the Safety Labeling of Statins

Larry Husten, PHD

The FDA today announced important new changes to the safety language on the labels of statins: Routine periodic monitoring of liver enzymes is no longer recommended. Serious liver injury associated with statins is “rare and unpredictable in individual patients” and “routine periodic monitoring of liver enzymes does not appear to be effective in detecting or preventing this rare side […]

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February 1st, 2012

Meta-Analysis Confirms Benefits of Statins in Women

Larry Husten, PHD

Although clinical trials have consistently found a beneficial effects for statins, some critics have questioned the strength of the evidence in women, who are often under-represented in clinical trials.  A large new meta-analysis published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology provides the best evidence yet that the relative reductions in events observed in men […]

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