What Happens When A Healthy 86-Year-Old Gets Atrial Fibrillation
Editor’s note: 86-year-old Nina Mishkin was still healthy and active when she went to Dublin, Ireland last September. After she returned home she developed atrial fibrillation, and then much more. “I never felt particularly vulnerable and fragile before,” she writes. “Now I do… It’s a different universe I inhabit.” I am grateful to Nina for giving...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - August 30, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Heart Failure Heart Rhythms People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics AF geriatrics old age pacemaker patient perspective Source Type: blogs
Lancet Paper Adds To Evidence That Reducing Salt To Very Low Levels May Be Dangerous
A new paper from a very large ongoing observational study offers additional and more powerful evidence that dramatic reductions in salt consumption may not be beneficial and might even prove harmful. The finding supports growing criticism that current guideline recommendations to dramatically lower salt intake in the general population may be misguided. The study also...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - August 9, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes guidelines potassium PURE salt sodium Source Type: blogs
No, A Big NIH Trial Did Not Show That Lowering Blood Pressure Will Prevent Dementia
It’s “breakthrough” time again. News reports out of the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) this week have been relentlessly upbeat and positive about findings from the NIH’s SPRINT MIND study. The message: aggressive blood pressure control can help protect the brain. But unless you look very carefully at the news reports and “expert” statements you won’t...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - July 26, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes Uncategorized Alzheimer's blood pressure dementia NIH SPRINT SPRINT MIND Source Type: blogs
Warning: Pirate Sites Are Now Kidnapping Doctors Booking Hotels At Medical Meetings
Pirates are attacking interventional cardiology meetings. Interventional cardiologists planning to attend the upcoming TCT meeting should be aware that at least one pirate web site is out to dupe them. (The annual TCT meeting, which runs this year in San Diego from September 21-25, is the première meeting for interventional cardiologists.) The pirates are trying...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - July 24, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics fake advertising fraud hotel rooms internet schemes pirate sites TCT TCT meeting Source Type: blogs
If You Look For Atrial Fibrillation You Will Find Atrial Fibrillation
If you look hard to find people who have atrial fibrillation (AF) you will in fact find people who have atrial fibrillation, a new paper published in JAMA shows. But the paper offers no evidence whatsoever that the new diagnosis improves outcomes in these people, though it does find that the diagnosis leads to increased use of...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - July 10, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Heart Rhythms Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes Uncategorized AF atrial fibrillation ECG monitoring screening Source Type: blogs
1 in 4 Cardiovascular Patients in Low Income Families Have Significant Financial Pain
Editor’s note: The following guest post is by Khurram Nassir, a cardiologist at the Yale University School of Medicine. He is the senior author of a new paper in JAMA Cardiology, “Association of Out-of-Pocket Annual Health Expenditures With Financial Hardship in Low-Income Adults With Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease in the United States.” 1 in 4 Cardiovascular...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - July 4, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics financial hardship Source Type: blogs
On Cannibals And Cardiologists
Everyone knows that cannibalism was practiced widely in pre-Colombian Mexico. Go online and you will quickly learn that 15,000 to 20,000 Aztecs were sacrificed each year. This “fact” colors our view of that civilization, and makes it a bit easier to give a pass to the conquistadors who, for all their own rapacity, brought “civilization”...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - June 21, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics ICDs overuse stents Source Type: blogs
Outsiders Swoop In Vowing To Rescue Rural Hospitals Short On Hope — And Money
Editor’s note: the following article is reprinted with permission from Kaiser Health News. Links to previous CardioBrief coverage of the laboratory scandal story can be found at the bottom of the page. by Barbara Feder Ostrov, Kaiser Health News CEDARVILLE, Calif. — Beau Gertz faced a crowd of worried locals at this town’s senior center,...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - June 5, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics HDL Lab lab scandal lab tests laboratory tests Source Type: blogs
New ORBITA Findings May Offer Modest Symptomatic Pain Relief To Interventional Cardiologists
New data presented at EuroPCR from the much debated ORBITA trial may provide some modest temporary lessening of the pain felt by interventional cardiologists in response to the initial negative ORBITA findings. But the pain relief is likely to be only temporary, and might even be fairly compared to a placebo effect, since the major...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - May 22, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Interventional Cardiology & Surgery People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics ORBITA PCI sham controls stable angina stents Source Type: blogs
NIH Halts Large Cardiovascular Inflammation Reduction (CIRT) Trial
The NHLBI has put an early stop to the large Cardiovascular Inflammation Reduction (CIRT) Trial. The NHLBI action was based on a recommendation from the trial’s Data and Safety Monitoring Board. The action was not based on any substantive safety concerns. “Sometime in late March or early April the NHLBI informed me that there were no substantive...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - May 21, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics CANTOS inflammation methotrexate Source Type: blogs
Salt War Opponents Unite In Call For Randomized Trial In Prisons
The opposing camps in the salt wars don’t agree on much, but they have now found common ground in their belief that the only way to settle the salt question is with a large randomized controlled trial. Further, they now agree that it would be nearly impossible to perform such a trial in the real...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - May 21, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes guidelines outcomes trials RCTs salt sodium Source Type: blogs
American Heart Association Venture Capital Fund Sparks Criticism
(Updated) The American Heart Association has announced that it has launched a $30 million venture capital fund “designed to spur healthcare innovation in heart disease and stroke care.” The AHA said that the Cardeation Capital fund will be funded by the AHA and co-investors Philips and UPMC. The fund “will invest in emerging healthcare companies that can...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - May 17, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Uncategorized american heart association COI conflict of interest venture capital Source Type: blogs
CABANA: No Outcomes Benefit In First Big Trial Of AF Ablation
(Updated) Catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF) produced no significant improvement in clinical outcomes in a large and important new clinical trial. CABANA is the first and long anticipated randomized controlled trial of AF ablation in the more than two decade long history of the procedure. The results will likely spark an intense controversy in...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - May 10, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Heart Rhythms People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics atrial fibrillation CABANA catheter ablation NIH RCTs Source Type: blogs
More Controversy Over Major Cardiology Clinical Trial
Think about this: A new article reports that a major NIH-funded trial runs into trouble. The article raises all sorts of fundamental questions about our ability to perform meaningful clinical research. But instead of expressing concern about these legitimate problems, medical leaders ignore these questions and instead focus their ire and criticism on the article authors,...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 30, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Interventional Cardiology & Surgery People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes clinical trials ischemia NIH PCI primary endpoint revascularization stents Source Type: blogs
Cardiology World Erupts Into Controversy Over Change In Major Clinical Trial
As a major clinical trial in cardiology nears completion it has provoked a storm of criticism and controversy. The brouhaha erupted in response to a late change to one of the most important— and already controversial— trials in cardiovascular medicine. The NIH-funded ISCHEMIA trial was designed back in 2011 to provide a definitive answer to...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 18, 2018 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Interventional Cardiology & Surgery People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes Uncategorized clinical trials ischemia NIH ORBITA primary endpoint stents Source Type: blogs
