The everolimus-eluting stent is better than the second-generation paclitaxel-eluting stent (Taxus Liberte, Boston Scientific) in unselected patients undergoing PCI in terms of safety and efficacy, concluded the COMPARE trial that was published Jan. 7 in Lancet. Based on these findings, the authors suggest that paclitaxel-eluting stents should no longer be used in everyday clinical practice.
The FDA has approved Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals’ supplemental new drug application for its angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) Micardis (telmisartan) tablets 80 mg for reduction of the risk of MI, stroke or death from cardiovascular causes in patients 55 years of age or older at high risk of developing major cardiovascular events, who are unable to take angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors.
In patients undergoing vascular surgery, peri-operative fluvastatin therapy was associated with an improvement in postoperative cardiac outcome, according to the DECREASE III trial published Sept. 3 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Cardiac MR showed a large, systematic improvement over transthoracic echocardiography in measuring volumes, left ventricular ejection fraction and wall motion abnormality despite moderate inter-modality correlations after a myocardial infarction, according to a study published Aug. 18 in Cardiovascular Ultrasound.
Prasugrel (Effient) significantly reduces the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with acute coronary syndromes after PCI regardless of whether or not a glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa inhibitor is used, according to an analysis of the TRITON–TIMI 38 trial in the Aug. 18 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Effient (prasugrel), a recently approved antiplatelet medicine, became available to U.S. pharmacies on Wednesday, drugmakers Daiichi Sankyo and Eli Lilly announced.
The FDA and Abbott Vascular have issued a national Class 1 recall of three lots of Powersail coronary dilatation catheters from U.S. distribution, as well as one lot from international distribution, as a result of four complaints that the distal shaft of the catheter exhibited damage.
Researchers may be able to predict future severe cardiac events in patients with known, stable coronary artery disease (CAD) using coronary calcium scoring, according to a study published July 28 in the online edition of Radiology.
The addition of rosiglitazone (Avandia from GlaxoSmithKline) to glucose-lowering therapy in people with type 2 diabetes does not increase the risk of overall cardiovascular morbidity or mortality compared with standard glucose-lowering drugs, according to the RECORD trial in the June 20 edition of the Lancet.
Endoscopic vein-graft harvesting is independently associated with vein-graft failure and adverse clinical outcomes after CABG, according to a study in the July 16 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.
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Heart attacks have become more common in middle-aged women over the past two decades, but all women and especially those younger than 55 have recently experienced a greater increase than men in their chances of survival following such a heart event, according to two reports in the Oct. 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.
SAN FRANCISCO—Blacks were found to have worse long-term cardiovascular outcomes and mortality, following PCI, irrespective of differences in baseline cardiovascular risk factors, socioeconomic status and healthcare access, based on a study presentation Tuesday at the annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics meeting.
In patients who have an acute coronary syndrome with or without ST-segment elevation, treatment with ticagrelor as compared with clopidogrel significantly reduced the rate of death from vascular causes, MI or stroke without an increase in the rate of overall major bleeding, based on the PLATO trial presented Sunday at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress in Barcelona, Spain. However, researchers found an increase in the rate of non–procedure-related bleeding.
Among older patients with diabetes, pioglitazone (Actos) is associated with a significantly lower risk of heart failure and death than is rosiglitazone (Avandia), according to a retrospective cohort study published Aug. 18 in the British Medical Journal.
The Society of Cardiovascular CT (SCCT) has named Chirapa Puntawangkoon, MD, and Thananya Boonyasirinant, MD, as the winners of the third annual Young Investigator Award.
Emergency physicians should trust their judgment when evaluating patients who report with chest pain symptoms, based on research published in this month's issue of Academic Emergency Medicine.
Ultrasound can be used to determine a patient's cardaic event risk after a transient ischemic attack (TIA). An evaluation of transcranial and extracranial Doppler ultrasonography, published July 30 in BMC Medical Imaging, demonstrated that both future stroke and future cardiovascular ischemic events can be predicted by abnormal findings.
Eli Lilly and Daiichi Sankyo's new blood thinner Effient (prasugrel) will cost about 18 percent more than the current gold-standard Plavix (clopidogrel), according to a report in Dow Jones Newswires.
Pharmalucence, a supplier of radiopharmaceutical products, has received approval from the FDA's Office of Generic Drugs for its abbreviated new drug application to manufacture and market its kit for the preparation of technetium Tc-99m Sestamibi injection.
Boston Scientific has received FDA approval to market its Taxus Liberte Long paclitaxel-eluting coronary stent system, a drug-eluting stent (DES) designed for long lesions.
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Middle age introduces itself in many ways; one is atrial fibrillation (AF). My onset of AF seems to have coincided with a mountain bike accident in the woods of North Carolina that resulted in some cracked ribs.
The use of health IT to reduce rehospitalizations will be welcome but also disruptive, said Stephen Jencks, an independent consultant in healthcare safety during a Feb. 24 webinar on the potential use of health IT to mitigate rehospitalizations, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
A new hospital breaking ground usually isn’t breaking news. But the vision of patient care at one new facility, tentatively named Palomar Medical Center West (PMC West), is currently illegal under California state law.
There are cases presented to all physicians when we have to balance benefits of a particular treatment with concerns around safety for certain patients. In interventional cardiology, we see this dilemma with drug-eluting stents (DES). While this technology provides effective therapy for many patients with ischemia-inducing coronary lesions, there are certain patient groups that encounter problems for different reasons.
U.S. News & World Report and HealthGrades surveys that rank “Best Hospitals” according to their high-quality cardiovascular care do not create the most comprehensive list and may create confusion by excluding hospitals that provide the same quality of care, according to a study published in the January issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.