April 12th, 2011
Two Studies Try to Improve Risk Prediction for Kidney Disease Progression
Larry Husten, PHD
Two papers presented at the World Congress of Nephrology and simultaneously published online in JAMA raise hope for better tools to calculate the risk for developing kidney failure, but the techniques are not yet ready for clinical use, according to an accompanying editorial. In the first study, Carmen Peralta and colleagues evaluated a triple-marker strategy […]
April 11th, 2011
Phentermine-Topiramate Combination Yields Significant Weight Loss
Larry Husten, PHD
The experimental diet drug combination of phentermine and topiramate demonstrated “robust efficacy” in CONQUER, a large new trial published online in the Lancet. The trial’s results come after a year in which the FDA turned down three investigational diet drugs (including Qnexa, the phentermine-topiramate combination used here) and removed the diet drug sibutramine from the […]
April 11th, 2011
PARTNER A: An Investigator’s View
Michael Mack, M.D.
CardioExchange welcomes Dr. Michael Mack to discuss the results of the PARTNER study of transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) versus surgical aortic valve replacement (AVR) in patients with aortic stenosis, which were just released at the ACC meetings in New Orleans. Dr. Mack was one of the principal investigators in this and the recently published […]
April 10th, 2011
Questioning the Guidelines
scottwright109 and Hansie Mathelier, MD
CardioExchange welcomes R Scott Wright, the chair of the recently published focused update of the ACC/AHA Unstable Angina/NSTEMI guidelines. Dr. Wright generously agreed to answer questions about the guidelines posed by the CardioExchange editors. CardioExchange Editors: For clinicians reading this guidelines update, what would you highlight as the most important new or revised recommendations that […]
April 8th, 2011
Who Might Merit the MitraClip?
Ted Feldman, MD
CardioExchange welcomes Ted Feldman, lead investigator for the EVEREST II study published earlier this week in the NEJM and presented at the ACC Scientific Sessions in New Orleans. Drs. Richard A. Lange and L. David Hillis, of CardioExchange, asked Dr. Feldman about the nuances of this randomized trial, in which percutaneous repair was compared with […]
April 7th, 2011
Flying Back Home: Reflections on ACC.11
Hansie Mathelier, MD
Several Cardiology Fellows who are attending ACC.11 this week are blogging together on CardioExchange. The Fellows include Sandeep Mangalmurti, Hansie Mathelier, John Ryan (moderating and providing an outsider’s view from Chicago), Amit Shah, and Justin Vader. See the previous post in this series, and check back often to learn about the biggest buzz in New […]
April 7th, 2011
STICH: What’s the Value of CABG in Patients with LV Dysfunction?
Eric Jose Velazquez, MD
CardioExchange welcomes Eric J. Velazquez, an investigator for the STICH (Surgical Treatment for Ischemic Heart Failure) trial, results of which were recently published in two articles in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Velazquez is the lead author of the STICH article that focuses on the clinical value of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) […]
April 6th, 2011
Large Study Finds Wide Differences in Risks Among Diabetes Drugs
Larry Husten, PHD
A very large observational study has found an increase in death and cardiovascular risk in people taking insulin secretagogues (ISs) compared with those taking metformin. Tina Ken Schramm and colleagues, reporting in the European Heart Journal, analyzed data from the entire population of Denmark and identified 107,806 people who initiated therapy with an IS or […]
April 6th, 2011
ACC Will Eliminate Current Model of Satellite Symposia at Future Meetings
Larry Husten, PHD
The ACC announced yesterday that it plans to eliminate the current model of satellite symposia at future meetings. The decision “was prompted in part by ongoing concerns about real and/or perceived bias in interactions with industry, specifically related to non-independence of certified satellite symposia.” The ACC has not worked out the details of the new […]
April 6th, 2011
Getting “Under the Skin” of Resistant Hypertension
Amit Shah, MD, MSCR
Several Cardiology Fellows who are attending ACC.11 this week are blogging together on CardioExchange. The Fellows include Sandeep Mangalmurti, Hansie Mathelier, John Ryan (moderating and providing an outsider’s view from Chicago), Amit Shah, and Justin Vader. See the previous post in this series, and check back often to learn about the biggest buzz in New […]