January 29th, 2010
Friday January 29 News Roundup: AHA and ACC Take Part in the Healthcare Debate, Long-Term Study of ICDs
Larry Husten, PHD
Healthcare Reform: American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown issued a statement on Obama’s State of the Union Address. Brown emphasized the AHA’s “strong commitment to comprehensive reform,” noting that “nearly seven million heart disease and stroke patients do not have health insurance coverage and in many cases forgo necessary medical care to pay bills and support […]
January 28th, 2010
Vitamin D in Heart Failure
Larry Husten, PHD
In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, vitamin D supplements did not improve functional capacity or quality of life in older heart failure patients with vitamin D insufficiency. The Dundee, UK study appears in Circulation: Heart Failure.
January 27th, 2010
Wednesday January 27 News Roundup: Simple Test for LQTS, More on MIST Controversy
Larry Husten, PHD
New Test for LQTS: A new test to diagnose Long QT syndrome (LQTS) is surprisingly simple, fast, and cheap. In an expedited study appearing in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Sami Viskin and an international team of colleagues looked at the ECG of LQTS patients and normal subjects after they were asked […]
January 26th, 2010
Tuesday, January 26 News Roundup: Liraglutide Approved; RF Ablation for AF; 3-D Images in the Cath Lab
Larry Husten, PHD
Liraglutide Approved: Late Monday, the FDA announced that it had approved liraglutide (Victoza, Novo Nordisk) for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, but not for initial therapy. The label contains a black-box warning about thyroid cancers. Catheter Ablation of AF: Results of the industry-funded ThermoCool AF Trial were published in JAMA. Trial investigators randomized 167 patients with paroxysmal […]
January 25th, 2010
Monday January 25 News Roundup: Percutaneous Valve Approved; Obesity & Exercise; Smoking & Infants
Larry Husten, PHD
FDA Approves Percutaneous Valve: The FDA has approved its first percutaneous heart valve. The Medtronic Melody Transcatheter Pulmonary Valve and Ensemble Delivery System was approved under the Humanitarian Device Exemption (HDE) program. “The FDA’s approval of Melody allows patients to undergo a much less invasive procedure to treat their heart condition,” said Jeffrey Shuren, director of the […]
January 24th, 2010
Is the FDA too Lax?
Richard A. Lange, MD, MBA
A recent review reports that cardiovascular devices are not subjected to nearly the same level of scrutiny as drugs, raising concern about the true safety and efficacy of approved new technologies. Do you think this has placed patients at risk, or is it a welcome difference from the lengthy and onerous approval process that delays the implementation of potentially […]
January 22nd, 2010
Friday January 22 News Roundup: Abbott Stops Sibutramine in Europe; Generic News
Larry Husten, PHD
Abbott Suspends Sibutramine Marketing in European Union: Following yesterday’s recommendation by the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) that sibutramine be withdrawn from European markets, Abbott Laboratories announced that it was suspending its marketing of the drug in the European Union. Generic News: A Wall Street analyst at Sanford Bernstein reports that clopidogrel besilate, which […]
January 22nd, 2010
Chantix and Cardiovascular Risk: Another Weak Safety Study
Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS
In 2008, Dr. John Spangler of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine wrote a letter to the editor of Current Medical Research and Opinion expressing concern about a Pfizer-funded, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of the smoking-cessation drug varenicline (Chantix). By 1 year, the varenicline group had experienced a higher rate of serious adverse events than the […]
January 21st, 2010
Thursday January 21 News Roundup: Tough Day for Sibutramine, Abnormal Lipids in Youths; Baylor in Trouble with the NIH
Larry Husten, PHD
Tough Day for Sibutramine– The FDA announced today that sibutramine is now contraindicated for people with cardiovascular disease. Almost simultaneously, the European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) recommended that sibutramine be withdrawn from European markets. Abnormal Lipids in Youths– The CDC reported today that 20.3% of U.S. youths aged 12-19 have abnormal […]
January 20th, 2010
Wednesday January 20 News Roundup: Salt in NEJM; AHA Defines Cardiovascular Health; FDA Approves HeartMate II LVAS for Destination Therapy
Larry Husten, PHD
Salty Stuff: Reducing dietary salt by 3 g per day would cut the annual number of new cases of CHD in the U.S. by 60,000 to 120,000, stroke by 32,000 to 66,000, and MI by 54,000 to 99,000, according to a report released early online in the NEJM by researchers from UCSF, Stanford, and Columbia University. […]