February 17th, 2010
Wednesday, February 17 News Roundup: Statins & Diabetes; ARTS II at 5 Years
Larry Husten, PHD
Statins & Diabetes: Following the recent observation from JUPITER of an increased risk of developing diabetes among patients taking rosuvastatin, a large meta-analysis in the Lancet by Sattar et al. has found a small but significant increase in the risk of diabetes for all statins. The authors conclude that “the risk is low both in absolute terms […]
February 17th, 2010
The Value of Statistical Modeling?
James De Lemos, MD
In this week’s “The Expert Is In” blog on CardioExchange, I interview Rodney Hayward about his very interesting and soon-to-be controversial paper just published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Rodney and his coauthors argue that the current lipid guidelines are misguided. Specifically, the authors show that the NCEP ATP III guideline approach, in which lipid-lowering therapy targets specific goals, is […]
February 16th, 2010
Tuesday, February 16 News Roundup: Women & CV Disease — HRT, Genetic Testing, and More
Larry Husten, PHD
HRT & Increased Risk: A new report from the Women’s Health Initiative in the Annals of Internal Medicine finds “no suggestion of a decreased risk for CHD … within the first 2 years” of HRT, even in women who started therapy within 10 years after menopause. For women who started HRT close to menopause, a “possible” […]
February 12th, 2010
Stents in the News
Larry Husten, PHD
Bill Clinton’s stent procedure received enormous amounts of attention in the news. Some of the reports even contained various doses of truthful information, though many were riddled with inaccuracies and misperceptions. According to reliable accounts, Clinton had a closed vein graft and received two Xience stents in his left circumflex artery at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center […]
February 12th, 2010
Statins for Preventing CAD: Is It Better to Tailor Treatment or Treat to Target?
James De Lemos, MD
We welcome Rodney A. Hayward, MD, to this forum to talk about his recent article Optimizing Statin Treatment for Primary Prevention of Coronary Artery Disease (Ann Intern Med 2010; 152:69), which was coauthored by Harlan Krumholz, MD, Editor of CardioExchange. James de Lemos, MD, asked Hayward some key questions. We encourage you to ask yours and […]
February 11th, 2010
Study finds significant lesions in one-fifth of patients with zero calcium scores
Larry Husten, PHD
(Note to readers: CardioExchange invited experts with divergent opinions about this study to participate in a debate. The first part of the debate, including comments from PK Shah, Matthew Budoff, and Rita Redberg, is presented at the bottom of this news story.) A calcium score of zero does not completely rule out significant coronary disease, […]
February 11th, 2010
Thursday, February 11 News: Fulminant Myocarditis in Children with H1N1
Larry Husten, PHD
Myocarditis & H1N1 in Children: In an expedited research correspondence appearing in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Bratincsák et al. report four cases of children with H1N1 influenza A virus at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego who developed myocarditis, including three with fulminant myocarditis with fatal or near-fatal outcomes. The authors […]
February 10th, 2010
Wednesday February 10 News Blizzard: Childhood Obesity & CV Disease; Migraine & CV Disease
Larry Husten, PHD
Childhood Obesity & CV Disease: Researchers followed 4,857 American Indian children without diabetes who were born between 1945 and 1984. They found significantly increased risk of premature death in children with obesity, glucose intolerance, and hypertension. By contrast, childhood hypercholesterolemia did not predict early death. The study by Franks and colleagues appears in the New England Journal […]
February 9th, 2010
Tuesday February 9 News Roundup: Rosuvastatin Gets Primary Prevention Indication; Providing Global Risk Assessment; IBD & VTE
Larry Husten, PHD
New Indication for Crestor: The FDA on Monday granted a primary prevention indication for rosuvastatin (Crestor, AstraZeneca). The decisionis based on the results of the JUPITER trial and a subsequent FDA advisory panel hearing. Click here to read the FDA’s Questions and Answers from the FDA for Healthcare Professionals on CRESTOR and the JUPITER Trial. Click […]
February 9th, 2010
An ENDEAVOR to COMPARE 2nd Generation DES
L. David Hillis, MD
In two recent studies, second-generation drug-eluting stents were compared with first-generation paclitaxel-eluting stents. In COMPARE, the everolimus-eluting stent was superior (31% risk reduction in “target lesion failure”), whereas in ENDEAVOR IV, the zotarolimus-eluting stent showed similar efficacy and safety to the paclitaxel-eluting stent. In light of these data, is there any role for the zotarolimus-eluting […]