Top HF Expert Decries ‘Unbelievable Folly’ of Clinical Trials and Guidelines
–Milton Packer, MD, calls the system to test and evaluate heart failure drugs dysfunctional The system is completely broken, writes heart failure specialist Milton Packer, MD, in an editorial in Circulation: Heart Failure. The results of important clinical trials are not being incorporated into guidelines quickly, intelligently, or consistently, Packer argued. The most important reason...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 23, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Heart Failure People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Entresto Evidence-based medicine guidelines LCZ 696 Source Type: blogs

Court Decision In Patent Battle Threatens PCSK9 Drug
—-One analyst thinks the decision might take Praluent off the market. A jury’s decision last week in a patent case might possibly lead to the removal of one of the new PCSK9 inhibitor cholesterol lowering drugs from the US market, according to a Wall Street analyst who has been closely following the case. Amgen, which...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 23, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes Amgen Patent PCSK9 Praluent Regeneron Repatha Sanofi Source Type: blogs

LVADs Prolong Life But Sow Confusion
–Patients with LVADs and their caregivers suffer from confusion and uncertainty at the end of life.  More and more people with advanced heart failure are receiving left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) as destination therapy. Now clinicians who treat these patients are reporting that the patients and their caregivers are suffering from an extraordinary amount of...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 22, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Heart Failure Policy & Ethics Death end of life hospice LVAD palliative care patient education Source Type: blogs

New Evidence Fitness Trackers Don’t Actually Track Fitness
–Little agreement found when 12 wearable devices were compared to gold standards Fitness trackers have not been found to help people improve the way they exercise, an article in the Sunday New York Times noted in a summary of the case against wearable fitness trackers, pointing up technical and even philosophical limitations of the devices....Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 21, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes apps big data fitness trackers mobile devices precision medicine Source Type: blogs

A Novel Way To Think About Primary Prevention, Death, And Statins
A new paper offers a novel way to think about disease prevention. The way we think– and talk– about disease prevention now is complicated and confusing. A key ingredient in the decision to take statins for the prevention of cardiovascular disease, for instance, is the estimation of 10-year cardiovascular risk. This single number, which represents...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 17, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes cardiovascular risk Darrel Francis lifespan Source Type: blogs

Confusion In The Age Of Genetic Information
We may live in the age of information but we really have no idea how to use all that information, especially when it comes to health. One new study, published in the BMJ, is a good illustration of this principle. “There are high expectations that advances in genetics will usher in a new era of...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 15, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes behavior genetics precision medicine Source Type: blogs

How Many People Really Have Familial Hypercholesterolemia– And Does It Matter?
A new study estimates that about 834,000 adults in the US have genetically high cholesterol levels, otherwise known as familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). The prevalence of FH, which the authors calculate as 1 in 250 American adults, is twice the size of earlier assumptions. But the authors acknowledge that the criteria for FH used in their...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 14, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs

Studies Spotlight Role Of Triglycerides, Put HDL In The Background
Two new studies provide more evidence tilting the balance in favor of triglycerides rather than HDL playing a causative role in cardiovascular disease. But it is still too early to know whether the findings of any of the studies will point to useful new methods to prevent and treat disease. In the first study, published...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 11, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes Uncategorized Atherosclerosis genetics HDL triglycerides Source Type: blogs

The Door Opens Wider For Drug Companies To Make Off-Label Claims
The FDA has finally reached a settlement in its long dispute with Amarin Corporation, manufacturer of the prescription fish oil product Vascepa. Last year a US judge ruled against the FDA.  The settlement brings an end to the litigation and will permit Amarin to promote off-label usage of Vascepa as long as its statements are...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 9, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes Uncategorized Amarin Caronia FDA first amendment Fish oil REDUCE-IT Vascepa Source Type: blogs

Theranos Ignored Red Flags On Its Blood Clot Tests
Beleaguered laboratory company Theranos sent out unreliable blood clot tests on at least 81 patients, according to an article by John Carreyrou and Christopher Weaver in the Wall Street Journal. Theranos, a former darling of Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and high technology medicine enthusiasts, has been the subject of a series of embarrassing revelations in...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 8, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics anticoagulation tests bleeding prothrombin Theranos Source Type: blogs

Controversial, Ill-Fated Obesity Drug Trial Published In JAMA
The final– but now largely useless– results of the cardiovascular safety trial of the obesity drug Contrave have now been published in JAMA, one year after the trial’s dramatic and scandalous crash and burn. By way of background: Contrave is a combination of naltrexone and bupropion marketed as a weight loss drug by Orexigen and...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 8, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes Contrave CVOT LIGHT Study Nissen obesity Orexigen patent application Source Type: blogs

Top Line Results Favor Victoza In Large Cardiovascular Outcomes Trial
Novo Nordisk today announced top-line positive results of the LEADERS trial, the cardiovascular outcomes trial testing its diabetes drug Victoza (liraglutide). Liraglutide is a GLP-1 inhibitor used to help achieve glucose control in patients with type 2 diabetes. 9,340 people with type 2 diabetes were randomized to liraglutide or placebo in LEADERS for 3.5 –...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 4, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Diabetes People, Places & Events CVOT liraglutide Victoza Source Type: blogs

Large Genetic Studies Support Role For Triglycerides In Cardiovascular Disease
Two  papers published in the New England Journal of Medicine offer new genetic evidence to support the increasingly accepted though still controversial view that triglycerides play an important causal role in cardiovascular disease. If fully validated the new findings could lead to new drugs to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease, though others caution that there...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 3, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes genetics triglycerides Source Type: blogs

Best Selling Smartphone Blood Pressure App Gave Wrong Results
A best-selling smartphone app that purported to measure blood pressure actually delivered highly inaccurate results, according to a research letter in JAMA Internal Medicine.  The finding could cause genuine medical harm for the large number of people who use the app. In addition, the study adds new fuel to the fiery debate about the reliability...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 2, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes Uncategorized app blood pressure hypertension mobile health smartphone Source Type: blogs

Shedding Light On The Hearts Of Pro Basketball Players
Every time an athlete dies on the field there is renewed interest in the controversial topic of preparticipation screening. One key limitation in the field is that there is little or no good data about what constitutes a healthy heart in athletes. Now a new study published in JAMA Cardiology provides an extraordinarily detailed look...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - February 29, 2016 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes athlete's heart athletes Echocardiography Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy Marfan NBA SCD screening Source Type: blogs