Recent Activity
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Sep 3
Many things about ESC felt different compared to other conferences I’ve attended — and as many felt the same. The basics were familiar— the welcome booths, the exhibits, and the masses of semi-serious looking people sporting the requisite badge-plus-bag accessory combo. (Thank goodness the bags were bright green and easy to spot from a mile away,...
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Sep 1
In the CURRENT-OASIS 7 trial, more than 25,000 patients with ACS for whom an interventional strategy was planned were randomized to either double-dose clopdiogrel (a 600-mg loading dose on the first day followed by 150 mg daily for 6 days and 75 mg daily thereafter) or standard-dose clopidogrel (a 300-mg loading dose, followed by 75 mg...
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Sep 1 Earlier this year, following the discovery of signals of potential danger in a large clinical trial, the weight loss drug sibutramine (Meridia) was withdrawn from the market in Europe while the FDA added a strongly worded contraindication to its use in people with cardiovascular disease. Now, 2 weeks before an FDA advisory panel will vote...
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Sep 1
The African-American Study of Kidney Disease and Hypertension (AASK) investigated the role of intensive blood-pressure control in slowing the progression of chronic kidney disease in black patients. In the previously reported results of the randomized portion of AASK , intensive BP control had no effect on the progression of CKD. Now the AASK Collaborative Research Group reports the...
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Sep 1
A recent NEJM study showed that out-of-hospital, cardiac-arrest patients who received compression-only CPR or traditional CPR had similar survival rates. We asked Mark Link, a member of the AHA Advanced Cardiac Life Support Committee, questions about this latest research. Read what he has to say, then ask him your own questions here.
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Aug 31
The AVERROES (Apixaban Versus Acetylsalicylic Acid (ASA) to Prevent Strokes) trial randomized 5600 AF patients who were unable to take warfarin to receive either aspirin or apixaban, a factor Xa inhibitor. (Another trial still underway, ARISTOTLE, is a direct comparison of warfarin and apixaban in AF.) AVERROES was stopped early after the Data Monitoring Committee...
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Aug 31
The EINSTEIN-DVT study tested the effect of the new oral anticoagulant rivaroxaban in the setting of DVT. The open-label, non-inferiority study randomized more than 3,400 patients with acute, symptomatic DVT to either oral rivaroxaban or conventional therapy with enoxaparin followed by warfarin or acenocoumarol for 3, 6, or 12 months, based on the attending physician’s...
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Aug 31
CardioExchange welcomes Guillaume Paré to discuss his team’s work on the utility of clopidogrel genotyping. The researchers genotyped for CYP2C19 alleles associated with loss-of-function or gain-of-function of clopidogrel in some 5,000 patients with ACS or A-fib from two large randomized trials . In both studies, clopidogrel had similar efficacy over placebo regardless of whether patients had loss-of-function alleles....
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Aug 31
FUTURA (Fondaparinux Trial With Unfractionated Heparin During Revascularization in Acute Coronary Syndromes)/OASIS-8 is the first trial to compare low-dose unfractionated heparin with conventional heparin dosing in PCI patients receiving fondaparinux. Sanjit Jolly and colleagues randomized 2026 non-STEMI high-risk patients undergoing PCI within 72 hours to either low-dose unfractionated heparin or a standard dose of heparin...
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Aug 31
As far as conferences go, I’m impressed. It’s only day two for me, but I can already say that I would come back. The workshops and clinical sessions are solid. The original science being presented is plentiful and of good quality. One Austrian colleague mentioned he was particularly pleased with the growth of basic science...
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Aug 30
African-Americans are nearly three times more likely than other races to develop stent thrombosis after receiving a drug-eluting stent, according to a new study appearing in Circulation. Ron Waksman and colleagues analyzed data from a large, single-center registry of 7,236 patients who received a DES and found that African-American race was the single strongest predictor of late...
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Aug 30
“Not all atherothrombosis is equal.” That’s the message from the latest findings of the international REACH (Reduction of Atherothrombosis for Continued Health) registry of more than 45,000 patients with “various manifestations” of atherothrombosis. According to the REACH investigators, “easily demarcated subgroups of atherothrombotic patients had widely varying risks , ranging from 7% in nondiabetic patients...
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Aug 29
I’ll admit I was a bit guarded about my first ESC conference, largely due to what seemed to be looming logistical issues. Despite all of Stockholm’s reported charm, it was hard to imagine how a city of this size was going to manage the invasion of over 20,000 — and possibly up to 30,000 —...
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Aug 29
Genetic substudies across a broad range of large clinical trials that used clopidogrel raise questions about the clinical utility of clopidogrel genotyping. The substudies come from large and important trials like PLATO, TRITON-TIMI 38, CURE, and ACTIVE A. A genetic substudy of PLATO finds that ticagrelor is superior to clopidogrel irrespective of genetic subtype. Therefore, according...
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Aug 29
At last year’s ESC meeting, the RE-LY trial heightened interest in the prospect of dabigatran as a potential replacement for warfarin. Now the RE-LY investigators have analyzed the trial data in an attempt to see whether the local standard of care has an impact on the beneficial effects of switching to dabigatran. In a presentation at...
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Aug 29
In the SHIFT trial, Karl Swedberg and colleagues tested the effects of ivabradine, a selective sinus-node inhibitor, in 6558 patients with heart failure who had a heart rate ≥70 bpm. After a median 23 months of follow-up, the rate of cardiovascular death or hospital admission for worsening heart failure was 24% in the ivabradine group...
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Aug 29
To test the effect of omega-3 fatty acids in cardiovascular disease, Kromhaut and colleagues with the Alpha Omega Trial Group randomized 4837 patients with a history of MI to treatment with one of four margarine preparations: one containing EPA and DHA; one with ALA; one with EPA, DHA, and ALA; or placebo. After 40 months,...
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Aug 27
Simon Redwood and Divaka Perera answer our questions about their randomized trial of IABP insertion during high-risk PCI in patients with severe LV dysfunction and extensive coronary disease. Check out our conversation and then ask them your own questions here.
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Aug 27
A recent randomized, controlled study in the NEJM showed that patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest who received compression-only CPR or traditional CPR had similar 30-day survival rates. CardioExchange asks Dr. Mark Link, a cardiac electrophysiologist and member of the American Heart Association Advanced Cardiac Life Support Committee , to answer our questions about compression-only vs. traditional CPR. Are we at a...
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Aug 27
Rick Lange brings the latest research on door-to-balloon times and moderates a free-flowing discussion with David Hillis, Harlan Krumholz, and Richard R. Schneider. Given regional variations, how do you think these patients should be treated? Tell us what you know here.
