CardioExchange Archive

October 7th, 2013

Study Supports Loosening Guidelines for Surgery After Stent Implantation

Larry Husten, PHD

According to current guidelines, noncardiac surgery should be delayed for six weeks after bare-metal stent (BMS) implantation and for one year after drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation, though there is little good evidence to support these recommendations. Stent thrombosis caused by discontinuation of antiplatelet therapy in order to lower the risk of bleeding during surgery is the […]

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September 20th, 2013

My Stent Is Better Than Your Stent

Richard A. Lange, MD, MBA and L. David Hillis, MD

Interventionalists have many choices when it comes to coronary stents. Rick Lange and David Hillis want to know: “How do you decide which stent to use?”

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September 13th, 2013

Should We Treat Nonculprit Lesions During PCI for STEMI?

David S Wald, MA MD FRCP, Richard A. Lange, MD, MBA and L. David Hillis, MD

CardioExchange’s Rick Lange and David Hillis interview David Wald about his group’s recently published findings from the PRAMI trial of “preventive” PCI in STEMI patients. Based on results of previous nonrandomized, observational studies, stenting non-infarct coronary stenoses during primary PCI has been discouraged. The Preventive Angioplasty in Acute Myocardial Infarction (PRAMI) trial in 465 STEMI patients assessed whether […]

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February 14th, 2013

No Aspirin After DES? Is This The Wild, Wild WOEST?

Richard A. Lange, MD, MBA and L. David Hillis, MD

According to the recently published results of the WOEST trial, patients receiving anticoagulation thereapy who undergo stenting have better outcomes with clopidogrel only than with clopidogrel plus aspirin. Rick Lange and David Hillis ask: Are you ready to stop prescribing aspirin to these patients?

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January 8th, 2013

Early Results: Antiplatelet Drug Cangrelor Superior to Clopidogrel in PCI Patients at 48 Hours

Larry Husten, PHD

The experimental antiplatelet drug cangrelor was superior to traditional clopidogrel in reducing ischemic events at 48 hours in PCI patients, according to the Medicines Company, which is developing the drug. The company today announced positive results from the phase 3 CHAMPION PHOENIX trial, a randomized, double-blind study comparing intravenous cangrelor to oral clopidogrel in PCI patients. The […]

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January 5th, 2013

Ohio Hospital and Cardiology Group Will Pay $4.4 Million to Settle Charges Over Unnecessary PCIs

Larry Husten, PHD

In 2006, Reed Abelson in the New York Times reported that the PCI rate in Elyria, Ohio, was four times the national average. Now, six-and-a-half years later, she reports that the local hospital, EMH Regional Medical Center, has agreed to pay $3.9 million to settle accusations that it billed Medicare for unnecessary PCIs. And the local cardiology group, North Ohio Heart Center, has agreed […]

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January 4th, 2013

Missouri Board Issues Emergency Suspension of Cardiologist Accused of Implanting Unnecessary Stents

Larry Husten, PHD

A Missouri cardiologist who has been accused of unnecessarily implanting stents in six patients has been temporarily barred from seeing patients. The Missouri State Board of Registration for the Healing Arts, which licenses physicians and investigates and disciplines physicians in cases of accused misconduct, issued an emergency suspension of the cardiologist’s license to practice, according to a […]

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November 4th, 2012

Platelet-Function Testing in Coronary Stenting: Frozen in Its Tracks

Gilles Montalescot, MD, PhD

An ARCTIC trial investigator discusses possible reasons why antiplatelet-drug and dosing adjustments, guided by platelet-function testing, did not improve clinical outcomes for stented patients.

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September 4th, 2012

You Got the Criminal. But What About the Bystander?

Mark Dayer, MD PhD FRCP and James Fang, MD

A drug-eluting stent is successfully implanted after an acute inferior MI in a fit 70-year-old man. What do you do for the bystander disease detected at the LAD/D1 junction?

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August 23rd, 2012

New DES Get COMFORTABLE with AMI

Richard A. Lange, MD, MBA and L. David Hillis, MD

The use of drug-eluting stents (DES) in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has recently generated concern. In two meta-analyses (De Luca et al and Kaleson et al) , the use of early-generation DES resulted in a lower risk of repeat revascularization compared with bare-metal stents (BMS) in patients with AMI, but the DES group had a 2-fold increased […]

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