February 18th, 2011
A Case of Clopidogrel Nonresponsiveness?
Tariq Ahmad, MD, MPH and James Fang, MD
This latest installment in our case discussion series is submitted by Tariq Ahmad, MD, MPH. We encourage members to submit cases that they believe warrant discussion. Selected cases will be presented to the community, and case authors will receive a $100 Amazon gift card. A 70-year-old woman presents to the ED with an anterior STEMI. […]
February 18th, 2011
ACP Internal Medicine 2011
Tariq Ahmad, MD, MPH
American College of Physicians – Internal Medicine 2011 San Diego, CA
February 17th, 2011
Quarter of U.S. Adults 45 and Older Taking Statins
Larry Husten, PHD
One-quarter of U.S. adults age 45 and older are taking statins, and one-half of men ages 65 to 74 are taking these drugs, according to the CDC’s annual report on trends in health statistics. From 1988 to 1994, only 2% of adults age 45 and older were taking statins. High cholesterol levels have been declining, according to […]
February 17th, 2011
HBPR 2011
CardioExchange Editors, Staff
High Blood Pressure Research 2011 Scientific Sessions Orlando, FL
February 17th, 2011
Unreasonable Expectations for Quality Improvement
John E Brush, MD
At a recent committee meeting, my hospital’s administration announced new quality measures and targets. Striving for top performance, the board of the hospital system set the bar extraordinarily high. The bonuses of senior management are tied to achieving the targets, so the announcement had everyone’s attention. One target that caught my interest was for achieving […]
February 15th, 2011
Study Sheds Light on Racial Disparities in Hospital Readmissions
Larry Husten, PHD
Although many studies in recent years have explored the issue of racial disparities in health care, a new study scrutinizes the effect of race on hospital readmissions, an area that has not been previously examined. In a report appearing in JAMA, Karen Joynt and colleagues examined Medicare data to study readmissions after hospitalizations for acute […]
February 15th, 2011
Dabigatran for Patients with AFib: Putting the Updated Recs into Practice
Samuel Goldhaber, MD
CardioExchange welcomes Samuel Zachary Goldhaber, MD, Director of the Venous Thromboembolism Research Group and Medical Co-Director of the Anticoagulation Management Service at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He answers practical questions from the CardioExchange editors about newly updated recommendations on the use of dabigatran in patients with atrial fibrillation, issued by the American College […]
February 15th, 2011
AHA Releases Updated Guidelines for the Prevention of CV Disease in Women
Larry Husten, PHD
Newly published online in Circulation, updated AHA guidelines for the prevention of cardiovascular disease in women emphasize practical medical advice. “These recommendations underscore the fact that benefits of preventive measures seen day-to-day in doctors’ offices often fall short of those reported for patients in research settings,” said Lori Mosca, chair of the guidelines writing committee, in […]
February 14th, 2011
CRT Found Beneficial in Less Severe Heart-Failure Patients
Larry Husten, PHD
Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) appears to be beneficial in patients with less severe heart failure (NYHA class I and II), according to a new systematic review published online in Annals of Internal Medicine. In a previous analysis, Nawaf Al-Majed and colleagues had found that CRT was highly beneficial in HF patients with NYHA class III and IV […]
February 14th, 2011
AF Guidelines Updated to Incorporate Dabigatran
Larry Husten, PHD
Less than two months after the publication of the 2010 updated atrial fibrillation (AF) guidelines, the AHA, the ACC, and the HRS have released a new focused update incorporating recommendations and a discussion concerning the direct thrombin inhibitor dabigatran, which gains a Class I recommendation: Class I: Dabigatran is useful as an alternative to warfarin […]