March 17th, 2011
Small Study May Help Revive Hope for Stem Cell Therapy
Larry Husten, PHD
Stem cell therapy may help reverse long-term damage after MI, according to a small, preliminary study by a group led by Joshua Hare published in Circulation: Research. Eight patients with LV dysfunction after MI received injections of autologous bone marrow progenitor cells in the LV scar and surrounding area. At one year, as assessed by […]
March 16th, 2011
CABG vs. PCI for Angina Relief: Lessons from SYNTAX
David Cohen, MD MSc
CardioExchange welcomes David J. Cohen, Director of Cardiovascular Research at St. Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, to discuss the latest analysis from the SYNTAX randomized trial. The study has just been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and Dr. Cohen is the lead author. Questions to Dr. Cohen come […]
March 15th, 2011
Quitting Smoking Shortly Before Surgery: Is It Safe?
Larry Husten, PHD
Quitting smoking soon before surgery is safe, according to a new meta-analysis published in Archives of Internal Medicine. In response to fears that people who stopped smoking within 8 weeks prior to surgery may have had worse outcomes, Katie Myers and colleagues analyzed data from 9 studies and found no association with postoperative complications. The […]
March 15th, 2011
GRAVITAS Editorial: Why Invite the Fox into the Henhouse?
Richard A. Lange, MD, MBA and L. David Hillis, MD
Results from the GRAVITAS randomized trial, presented at the 2010 American Heart Association conference, have just been published in JAMA. They show that high-dose clopidogrel did not improve outcomes after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with “high on-treatment platelet reactivity” (i.e., during clopidogrel therapy), compared with clopidogrel given at conventional doses. Our interpretation at CardioExchange, reported […]
March 14th, 2011
The Common Thread Among Top-Performing Hospitals
Leslie Curry, PhD, MPH
A qualitative study just published in the Annals of Internal Medicine outlines some important distinctions between hospitals that have the lowest AMI mortality rates in the U.S and those that have the highest. The key factor? A supportive organizational culture. Here, study investigator Leslie Curry, PhD, MPH walks us through what that means and how […]
March 14th, 2011
AHA Offers Qualified Endorsement of Weight-Loss Surgery
Larry Husten, PHD
For the first time, the AHA has offered a qualified endorsement of bariatric surgery. The scientific statement, published in Circulation, states that bariatric surgery is a relatively safe procedure that can lead to long-term weight loss and significantly improve health in appropriately selected obese patients who have been unable to lose weight nonsurgically. But, said Paul […]
March 10th, 2011
Obesity and Cardiovascular Risk: Does Size Matter?
Larry Husten, PHD
A very large new study finds that obesity — no matter how it is calculated — is not an important independent predictor of cardiovascular disease. A report from the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration published online in the Lancet analyzed individual records from more than 220,000 people without known cardiovascular disease and found that none of the […]
March 10th, 2011
Howard Bauchner to Replace Catherine DeAngelis as JAMA Editor
Larry Husten, PHD
The AMA announced today that Howard Bauchner will become the next editor-in-chief of JAMA. Bauchner will replace Catherine DeAngelis, who has been the editor for the past 11 years. Bauchner, a professor of pediatrics and community health sciences at Boston University Schools of Medicine, is currently the editor-in-chief of the Archives of Disease in Childhood. […]
March 10th, 2011
Olmesartan Helps Prevent Microalbuminuria, But a Troubling Question Persists
Larry Husten, PHD
Olmesartan can help prevent progression to microalbuminuria in type 2 diabetics, according to results of the ROADMAP (Randomized Olmesartan and Diabetes Microalbuminuria Prevention) trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine. But the positive result was partially offset by the troubling finding of a small but significant increase in fatal cardiovascular events. Type 2 […]
March 9th, 2011
ACTIVE I Examines Role for Irbesartan in AF Patients
Larry Husten, PHD
The angiotensin-receptor blocker irbesartan does not significantly reduce cardiovascular events in patients with atrial fibrillation, according to the results of the Atrial Fibrillation Clopidogrel Trial with Irbesartan for Prevention of Vascular Events (ACTIVE I), published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Participants had been previously randomized in the ACTIVE A trial or the ACTIVE W trial. More than […]