November 30th, 2010
New Performance Measures for Peripheral Artery Disease Issued
Larry Husten, PHD
Performance measures to improve the diagnosis and treatment of peripheral artery disease (PAD) in adults have been published for the first time. The document was produced by the ACC, the AHA, and several other medical organizations. Here are a few key details of the performance measures: Measuring the ankle brachial index (ABI) is an easy […]
November 30th, 2010
ASCENDing Into the Depths of the Nesiritide Controversy: Questions for Eugene Braunwald
CardioExchange Editors, Staff
Results of ASCEND-HF (Acute Study of Clinical Effectiveness of Nesiritide in Decompensated Heart Failure Trial), presented as a late-breaking clinical trial at the AHA meeting, showed that there were no significant differences in the pre-specified endpoint of dyspnea among some 7,000 patients with acute, decompensated HF randomized to receive standard therapy and either continuous intravenous nesiritide or placebo. This trial was started […]
November 29th, 2010
Study Finds No Link Between Cancer and Antihypertensives, Except for ARB-ACE Inhibitor Combo
Larry Husten, PHD
A new meta-analysis has found no evidence of a large cancer risk for most common antihypertensive agents, but did find strong evidence, largely based on one trial, for at least a 10% increase in cancer risk with the rarely used angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitor and angiotensin-receptor blocker (ARB) combination. In a paper in the Lancet Oncology, […]
November 23rd, 2010
Greek Study Offers Reassurance About Statin Usage in Patients with Abnormal Liver Tests
Larry Husten, PHD
In the GREACE (Greek Atorvastatin and Coronary Heart Disease Evaluation) study, 1600 patients with coronary heart disease were randomized to atorvastatin or usual care; of these, 437 had moderately abnormal liver tests at baseline, suggesting non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In a post-hoc analysis of this subset of patients, published in the Lancet, the GREACE […]
November 23rd, 2010
How Should We DEFINE Anacetrapib’s Success?
Philip John Barter, MD, PhD and Christopher Paul Cannon, MD
CardioExchange welcomes Philip Barter and Christopher P. Cannon, two of the investigators for the DEFINE trial, which was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Here, they answer questions posed by CardioExchange’s editors. First, some background about the trial: In DEFINE, 1623 patients with or at high risk for coronary disease were randomized to […]
November 22nd, 2010
SHARP: A Tale of Two Press Releases
Larry Husten, PHD
Two press releases were issued about the SHARP trial : one from Merck, the much-maligned and criticized manufacturer of Vytorin (the combination of ezetimibe and simvastatin), and one from the group running the trial, the highly-respected Clinical Trials Service Unit (CTSU) at Oxford. Here’s the surprise: compared to the Oxford press release, the Merck release is a paragon, […]
November 22nd, 2010
Send Us Your Vexing Cases
Anju Nohria, MD
No matter how evidence-based we strive to be in our decision making, we all know that the patient in front of us is never exactly like those enrolled in large clinical trials. Thus at CardioExchange, we have highlighted cases where the application of evidence-based medicine and treatment guidelines is not straight-forward. And often, to our […]
November 22nd, 2010
A Clinical Conversation with Harlan Krumholz: CardioExchange and AHA
CardioExchange Editors, Staff
In a Journal Watch Clinical Conversations podcast, Editor Harlan Krumholz discusses CardioExchange and what he thinks of the top research presented at AHA 2010. Hear what Harlan has to say about anacetrapib, rivaroxaban, Tele-HF, and more. Also, see Harlan’s posts at Forbes on remote patient monitoring (including his own Tele-HF study) and on the DEFINE […]
November 22nd, 2010
Treating Resistant Hypertension: Singe – Don’t Stent – The Renal Artery
Richard A. Lange, MD, MBA
For years, interventional cardiologists (and radiologists) have been stenting renal arterial stenoses in patients with resistant hypertension, despite evidence that doing so does not lower blood pressure. It appears we had the right organ (the kidney), but we’ve been doing the wrong procedure. We should have been delivering a singe, not a stent. Advances in endovascular catheter […]
November 20th, 2010
SHARP Shows Benefit for Vytorin in Chronic Kidney Disease
Larry Husten, PHD
The long-awaited SHARP study has turned up positive results for Vytorin (ezetimibe and simvastatin) in a population of patients with chronic kidney disease. Results of SHARP (Study of Heart and Renal Protection) were presented on Saturday at the American Society of Nephrology meeting in Denver and were scheduled to be posted online on the trial’s website. SHARP […]