On Thursday the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a memo containing details of its proposed Medicare coverage for transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). The memo is a response to a formal request for national coverage determination (NCD) from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) and the American College of Cardiology (ACC). The memo will be open…

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As dabigatran becomes more widely used in AF patients, electrophysiologists are trying to figure out how to handle anticoagulation in patients taking the drug and for whom AF ablation is planned. In a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Dhanunjaya Lakkireddy and colleagues report on a multicenter, observational study of 290 patients…

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Although clinical trials have consistently found a beneficial effects for statins, some critics have questioned the strength of the evidence in women, who are often under-represented in clinical trials.  A large new meta-analysis published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology provides the best evidence yet that the relative reductions in events observed in men…

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Following the recent FDA approval of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), the ACC, AATS, SCAI, and STS — in conjunction with several other medical organizations — have released a critical consensus document to guide use of the new landmark procedure. “We have tried to collate the evidence into a coherent road map for judicious use, rational…

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Robert Harrington will be leaving his position as the director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute, a position he has held since 2006, to become the new chair of the department of medicine at Stanford University. Harrington was also the Richard S. Stack MD Distinguished Professor at Duke University School of Medicine. The news was publicly…

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The ACC, AHA, and other organizations have released updated appropriate use criteria for coronary revascularization. The 2012 Appropriate Use Criteria for Coronary Revascularization Focused Update incorporates data from the SYNTAX trial on the indications for PCI and CABG in patients with symptomatic, multivessel disease, as well as data from the CathPCI registry. Here are some of the…

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Although PCI has a small, early mortality benefit compared to CABG in high-risk patients, after the first year a striking survival advantage for CABG develops, according to results of the ASCERT study, presented on Monday at the annual meeting of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS). Fred Edwards presented the high-risk subset of ASCERT (ACCF-STS Database…

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The NHLBI today announced the launch of two large clinical trials evaluating treatments for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The Continuous Chest Compressions (CCC) trial will randomize 23,600 people with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest to either standard CPR or continuous chest compressions, both delivered by paramedics or fire fighters. In recent years, studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine,  JAMA, and the Lancet have provided…

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Since 2002, the incidence of acute MI in England has dropped by one-half and the case fatality rate by one-third, according to a new study published in BMJ. The overall decline in deaths from MI is about equally due to improvements in the prevention of MI and the treatment of MI. Kate Smolina and colleagues analyzed data…

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An enormous new meta-analysis confirms the important role that risk factors play over a lifetime in the development of cardiovascular disease. In a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Jarett Berry and colleagues report on the meta-analysis from the Cardiovascular Lifetime Risk Pooling Project, which contains data from 18 epidemiological studies including more than one-quarter million…

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