April 30th, 2012
Certain Hospital Management Strategies Associated With Higher MI Survival Rates
Betsy Bradley, Ph.D. and John Ryan, MD
John Ryan interviews Elizabeth Bradley about the hospital management strategies that can reduce 30-day risk-standardized mortality rates for acute myocardial infarction.
April 30th, 2012
HeartRhythm Editor Douglas Zipes Defends Peer Review
Larry Husten, PHD
Rejecting an extraordinary request from industry to retract a controversial paper, Douglas Zipes, the editor-in-chief of HeartRhythm, has written a rare, highly pointed editorial defending the publication process. “If one disagrees with facts/statements in a publication,” writes Zipes, “there is a well-defined approach that can begin with a letter to the editor or submission of one’s own data for peer […]
April 30th, 2012
Selections from Richard Lehman’s Literature Review: Week of April 30th
Richard Lehman, BM, BCh, MRCGP
This week, Richard looks at endocarditis and ICDs, more stent wars, stroke prevention in A-Fib, and more.
April 27th, 2012
Cameron Health’s Subcutaneous ICD Sails Through FDA Advisory Panel
Larry Husten, PHD
The FDA’s Circulatory System Devices panel voted 7-1 on Thursday that the benefits of the Cameron Health subcutaneous ICD system (S-ICD) outweigh the risks in appropriately selected patients. Unlike all previous ICDs, the S-ICD is much easier to implant because it is does not require threading a lead to connect the device to the heart. Panel member Rick […]
April 26th, 2012
Frailty Evaluation and High-Risk Interventions
John A. Dodson, MD
When taking care of older patients, we often have an intuitive sense of which ones will do well after an intervention and which ones won’t. This has been termed the “foot of the bed” test, or alternately something which separates a “young 80-year old” from an “old 80-year old.” Frailty is a syndrome defined as […]
April 26th, 2012
FDA Advisory Panel Gives Green Light to HeartWare Ventricular Assist System
Larry Husten, PHD
The FDA’s Circulatory System Devices panel voted 9-2 on Wednesday to recommend approval of the HeartWare Ventricular Assist System as a bridge to heart transplantation for patients with end-stage heart failure. The panel agreed unanimously (11-0) that the new device is effective. The panel was more divided about safety but ultimately voted 8-3 that the device […]
April 25th, 2012
When You’re Hot, You’re Hot: Salim Yusuf Second Most Influential Scientist in 2011
Larry Husten, PHD
McMaster University’s Salim Yusuf has tied for second place in the annual ranking of the “hottest” scientific researchers, according to Thomson Reuter’s Science Watch. Yusuf was a co-author of 13 of the most cited papers in 2011. Only one other researcher, genomic pioneer Eric Lander of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, had more highly-cited papers than Yusuf. Two […]
April 25th, 2012
Study Sheds Light on Cardiac Device Infective Endocarditis
Larry Husten, PHD
A new study sheds light on a rare but highly dangerous complication associated with device implants: cardiac device infective endocarditis (CDIE). Approximately 10% to 23% of device infections result in CDIE, leading, in one estimate, to an overall rate of 1.14 cases per 1000 device-years. In a paper published in JAMA, Eugene Athan and colleagues analyzed data […]
April 24th, 2012
Primary PCI Meta-Analysis: Mortality Trumps All
Chohreh Partovian, MD, PhD
In a new meta-analysis Dr. Gregg Stone and members of the Drug-Eluting Stent in Primary Angioplasty (DESERT) Cooperation concluded that reduction in target-vessel revascularization (TVR) associated with drug-eluting stents (DES) in primary PCI provided a powerful reason for continued use of DES in primary PCI. An accompanying editorial by James Brophy focused on several potential DES weaknesses in the study. […]
April 24th, 2012
Meta-Analysis Compares Drug-Eluting and Bare-Metal Stents for Primary Angioplasty
Larry Husten, PHD
A new meta-analysis comparing drug-eluting stents (DES) and bare-metal stents (BMS) in patients with MI has provoked opposing take-away messages from the study authors and an editorialist. The authors emphasize the reduction in target-vessel revascularization (TVR) associated with DES, but the editorialist focuses on several potential DES weaknesses suggested by the study. In the paper, published […]