CardioExchange Archive

February 25th, 2014

Study Raises Questions About Transfusions in PCI Patients

Larry Husten, PHD

A very large observational study raises important questions about the role of transfusions in PCI patients in the U.S. In a study published in JAMA, researchers from Duke and Yale analyzed data from more than 2.25 million percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures at more than 1400 hospitals. The data came from the CathPCI Registry, a large ongoing study […]

---

December 2nd, 2013

ACP Recommends Conservative Treatment for Heart Patients with Anemia

Larry Husten, PHD

The American College of Physicians (ACP) is recommending more conservative use of transfusions and erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) in anemia patients with heart disease. But the authors of the new clinical practice guidelines, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, acknowledge that the evidence base is too flimsy to support firm conclusions. “Overall,” wrote the authors, “despite the epidemiologic and […]

---

October 13th, 2010

Transfusions and Cardiac Surgery: “A Major Concern”

Larry Husten, PHD

One new study in JAMA demonstrates very wide differences among hospitals in the use of transfusions during cardiac surgery. A second study finds no differences in outcome based on transfusions. Two editorialists write that “continued inappropriate transfusions among hospitals is a major concern.” Bennett-Guerro and colleagues analyzed the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Adult Cardiac Surgery Database to […]

---