CardioExchange Archive

March 31st, 2010

Her Cancer Treatment Is Working, but Her Heart Is Failing

Anju Nohria, MD and James Fang, MD

The patient is a 57-year-old woman with a history of Hodgkin disease of the anterior mediastinum. Upon being diagnosed at age 26, she was treated with a staging laparotomy, splenectomy, and 36 Gy of radiation to the mantle and para-aortic areas. She did well until September 2009, when she developed increasing dyspnea on exertion, weight […]

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March 31st, 2010

New York Times Orbits JUPITER

Larry Husten, PHD

A front page story in Wednesday’s New York Times questions the expanding use of statins, and particularly rosuvastatin, in “healthy people.” Following the recent approval of broad new indications for the drug based on results from the JUPITER trial, Times reporter Duff Wilson notes that millions of people may now take the drug “largely as prevention” and that some […]

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March 30th, 2010

• FDA Issues Complete Response Letter For Certriad
• U.K.’s NICE Goes Easier on Dronedarone
• U.S. Justice Dep’t & SEC Look Into Boston Scientific ICD Recall

Larry Husten, PHD

FDA Issues Complete Response Letter For Certriad: The FDA issued a complete response letter for the NDA for Certriad, Abbot’s and AstraZeneca’s combination pill composed of rosuvastatin and fenofibric acid delayed release. The companies did not release any details of the letter, but analysts think it will mean the drug’s approval will likely be delayed […]

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March 29th, 2010

• Screening for Type 2 Diabetes
• FDA Cracks Down on Unapproved Nitroglycerin

Larry Husten, PHD

Screening for Type 2 Diabetes: Kahn et al. used a sophisticated computer model to assess the impact of 8 different screening strategies to detect type 2 diabetes in the US. The researchers concluded that screening is cost effective when started between the ages of 30 and 45 years of age, with screening repeated every 3–5 years. The […]

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March 26th, 2010

Hospital Volume and Outcomes: Size Matters, but Only to a Point

Joseph S. Ross, MD, MHS

This week we welcome CardioExchange Contributor Joseph Ross, MD, to answer questions about his study in NEJM, Hospital Volume and 30 Day Mortality for Three Common Medical Conditions (co-authored with CardioExchange Editor, Harlan Krumholz, MD). CardioExchange Editors: What does this research add to our current knowledge about volume and outcomes? The relationship between greater volume […]

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March 25th, 2010

Study Finds Long-Term Problems with Alcohol Septal Ablation

Larry Husten, PHD

Although alcohol septal ablation (ASA) for the treatment of obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is now gaining increasing acceptance in many parts of the world, a new study finds that it may cause more problems than traditional surgical myectomy. Investigators from the Netherlands, led by Patrick Serruys, studied 91 consecutive ASA patients and compared them to 40 consecutive […]

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March 24th, 2010

• Hospital Volume and Mortality
• Coronary Artery Fistula Closure

Larry Husten, PHD

Hospital Volume and Mortality: Using Medicare data, Ross et al. investigated the association between hospital volume and the 30-day death rate for patients admitted for acute MI, heart failure, and pneumonia. In their report in the New England Journal of Medicine, the researchers found that increased volume was associated with reduced rates of death for […]

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March 24th, 2010

ACCORD: Bigger Issues for Our Patients

JoAnne M. Foody, MD

We are now at a point where it is increasingly difficult to demonstrate the incremental value of any preventive therapy, as we are successful in reducing CV risk to lower and lower levels. What is my take on the ACCORD BP study? It’s that we should focus on ensuring that all patients achieve at least the […]

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March 24th, 2010

Freezing in AF Ablation—Not So Fast, You All

John Mandrola, MD, FACC

CardioExchange welcomes this guest post reprinted with permission from Dr. John M, a blog by private-practice electrophysiologist and CardioExchange member, Dr. John Mandrola. Freezing the heart is in the news. The STOP-AF trial was presented at ACC, and it sure has generated much excitement about atrial fibrillation ablation. This is a good thing. However, as […]

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March 23rd, 2010

• High Blood Pressure in ICU Linked to Better Outcome
• Nissen and JAMA Editors Weigh In on Avandia
• Improving Informed Consent; Beta-Blocker Inventor Dies

Larry Husten, PHD

High Blood Pressure in ICU Linked to Better Outcome: Using data from nearly 120,000 patients admitted to the ICU for chest pain, Swedish investigators found, somewhat unexpectedly, that high systolic blood pressure at the time of admission was associated with improved outcome. The association remained evident even when patients with CHF or who went on to […]

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