November 14th, 2010
A Life-RAFT for Patients with HF?
Arthur J. Moss, MD
CardioExchange welcomes Arthur Moss, Professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and lead investigator of the MADIT-CRT trial, to discuss his New England Journal of Medicine editorial on the RAFT trial, in which patients with mild-to-moderate HF were randomized to receive either an ICD alone or ICD plus CRT. It seems […]
November 14th, 2010
AHA: A Global View
Paul Armstrong, MD
Several Cardiology Fellows who are attending this week’s AHA meeting are blogging together on CardioExchange. The Fellows include Susan Cheng, Madhavi Reddy, John Ryan, and Amit Shah. Check back often to learn about the biggest buzz in Chicago this week — whether it’s a poster, a presentation, or the word in the hallways. You can read […]
November 14th, 2010
ASCEND-HF: Nesiritide Is Safe But Not Effective
Larry Husten, PHD
ASCEND-HF (Acute Study of Clinical Effectiveness of Nesiritide in Decompensated Heart Failure Trial) was started in response to the enormous controversy over the safety and efficacy of nesiritide, which was being used in growing numbers of heart failure patients. The trial randomized 7141 patients with acute, decompensated HF to receive standard therapy and either continuous intravenous nesiritide or placebo. Results of ASCEND-HF, presented as […]
November 14th, 2010
Emphatic Support for Eplerenone in NYHA Class II Heart Failure
Larry Husten, PHD
Aldosterone antagonists have proven beneficial in heart failure patients with moderate-to-severe symptoms and in MI patients with LV dysfunction and heart failure. Now EMPHASIS-HF (Eplerenone in Mild Patients Hospitalization and Survival Study in Heart Failure) has extended these benefits to patients with systolic HF and mild symptoms. EMPHASIS HF randomized 2737 patients with NYHA class […]
November 14th, 2010
ICD-CRT Found Beneficial in RAFT
Larry Husten, PHD
RAFT (Resynchronization-Defibrillation for Ambulatory Heart Failure Trial) randomized 1798 patients with NYHA class II or III heart failure, LVEF < 30%, and a wide QRS complex to either an ICD alone or an ICD-CRT. After a mean followup of 40 months, the rate of death or heart failure hospitalization was 40.3% in the ICD group […]
November 13th, 2010
Sweet Home Chicago: An AHA Meal Planner
John Ryan, MD
Several Cardiology Fellows who are attending this week’s AHA meeting are blogging together on CardioExchange. The Fellows include Susan Cheng, Madhavi Reddy, John Ryan, and Amit Shah. Check back often to learn about the biggest buzz in Chicago this week — whether it’s a poster, a presentation, or the word in the hallways. Here’s our […]
November 13th, 2010
Study Explores Role of Familial AF in Risk of Developing New AF
Larry Husten, PHD
Although it is well known that there is a heritable component to atrial fibrillation (AF), the precise clinical significance of familial AF has been unclear. Steven Lubitz and colleagues analyzed data from the Framingham Heart Study to assess the incremental predictive value of familial AF in a risk model for new-onset AF. In a presentation at […]
November 12th, 2010
Time Out!
Brahmajee Kartik Nallamothu, MD, MPH
This week, JAMA published a commentary that Harlan Krumholz and I wrote about the growing use of ad hoc PCI and its implications for decision making about coronary revascularization. To cut to the chase, we believe that ad hoc PCI — the performance of a diagnostic cath and PCI in the same setting — makes […]
November 11th, 2010
Heart Failure: A Scary Name That Doesn’t Make Sense
Mary Knudson, Health Journalist
Well-known science journalist Mary Knudson is the author of HeartSense, a blog about heart failure, from which the following post is taken. In this post, she questions the aptness of the designation “heart failure.” For the last week, I have been mulling over the term heart failure, questioning how the collective conditions that bear this label ever got such a […]
November 10th, 2010
Alzheimer’s Disease and Cholesterol: A Tricky Relationship
Larry Husten, PHD
A recent study in Neurology found that cholesterol levels in mid-life were not linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease in older age. In fact, the study by Michelle Mielke and colleagues found that large drops in cholesterol levels in old age were a harbinger of Alzheimer’s. CardioExchange asked Cynthia Carlsson, Assistant Professor and Alzheimer’s researcher […]