Women, younger patients, those with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and those with arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia or channelopathies may be more likely to develop Sprint Fidelis lead failure. Robert Hauser and colleagues at the Minneapolis Heart Institute, the Mayo Clinic, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center analyzed data from 1023 patients who received Fidelis leads and 1668 [...]
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The US Department of Justice has filed another suit against Boston Scientific. The government claims that Guidant (bought by Boston Scientific in 2006) sold the Ventak Prizm 2 and the Renewal 1 and 2 devices even after the company knew they were defective. Earlier this month Boston Scientific was convicted and sentenced in a criminal case to [...]
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Analysis of data from the Heart Protection Study (HPS) indicates that a CRP measurement obtained at baseline does not predict the effect of statin therapy. In a paper published online in the Lancet, the HPS Collaborative Group report the results of the more than 20,000 patient HPS study based on CRP category at baseline. As previously [...]
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Marc Sabatine has replaced Eugene Braunwald as the chairman of the TIMI study group, CardioBrief has learned. Braunwald, who has been the dominant figure in cardiology for many decades, is 81. Sabatine was appointed Vice Chairman of the TIMI group last summer and he assumed the chairman’s role on January 1.
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Despite the increasing complexity of cases, the risk of stroke after CABG may be declining, according to a new study published in JAMA. Khaldoun Tarakji and colleagues prospectively studied more than 45,000 patients who underwent CABG at the Cleveland Clinic from 1982 through 2009.
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A large single-center observational study has found a link between inappropriate ICD shocks and mortality. In a report published in JACC, Johannes van Rees and colleagues from the Netherlands followed 1,544 patients who received an ICD from 1996 to 2006. 13% of patients had at least one inappropriate shock over 41 months of followup. Age below 70 [...]
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At the doses most often used, hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ), the most widely used antihypertensive agent in the world, is “consistently inferior” to all other drugs, according to a new meta-analysis published in JACC. Franz Messerli and colleagues performed a systematic review of studies that compared HCTZ to other drugs using 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and found that [...]
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The American Heart Association (AHA) is projecting that the cost to treat heart disease in the US will triple by 2030, from $273 billion today to $818 billion. The AHA policy statement is published in Circulation. The AHA estimates that the incidence of stroke and heart failure will each grow by about 25% by 2030.
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The Heart Rhythm Society has informed its members that it is “aware of an ongoing US Department of Justice (DOJ) civil investigation of Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) implants” and that it has “agreed to assist in an advisory role to lend expertise concerning proper guidelines for clinical decision making.” HRS explained that its role involved “reviewing [...]
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Editor’s Note: The following post by Gary Schwitzer is reprinted with permission from his blog at HealthNewsReview.Org. HealthNewsReview has received many praises and awards, including Medgadget’s Best Medical Blog award for 2009, which wrote that “Gary has become renowned for his critique of media’s coverage of health care topics. And that’s what his blog is mostly [...]
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Updated with additional information from TRACER chair Bob Harrington. A key detail has now emerged about the problems encountered with vorapaxar, Merck’s thrombin receptor antagonist that suffered a large setback last week. TIMI investigators in the TRA-2P TIMI 50 trial have been informed by Eugene Braunwald that the reason vorapaxar would be discontinued in patients [...]
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Editor’s Note: The following guest post, about the recent publication of PROSPECT in the New England Journal of Medicine, is by Richard Lange and L. David Hillis. This post is reprinted with permission from CardioExchange, where Lange and Hillis write a blog about interventional cardiology. Among their many other titles, Lange is the Executive Vice Chairman of Medicine and [...]
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A Cochrane Review raises troubling questions about the evidence base supporting the use of statins for primary prevention. The Cochrane reviewers analyzed 14 randomized trials including 34,272 participants and found that statins were associated with significant reductions in overall mortality, fatal and nonfatal CV endpoints, and revascularization procedures. The reviewers found no evidence of harm. [...]
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A study published in the Lancet lends support to a new form of CPR that uses a combination of two devices to provide three times more blood flow to the heart and brain than standard CPR. The first device is a small suction cup on the patient’s chest used to actively lift the chest and perform [...]
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The FDA has released a safety communication (reprinted below) about severe liver injury associated with Multaq (dronedarone). The communication confirms and provides additional details about the 2 liver transplant cases that were first reported here on CardioBrief. (Click here for the response from Sanofi-Aventis to the CardioBrief report.) The FDA said that information about the risk [...]
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A Sanofi-Aventis spokesperson has confirmed CardioBrief’s story yesterday and has provided further details and clarifications about the Dear Doctor letter. Here is the Sanofi statement:
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Sanofi-Aventis is about to send a “Dear Doctor” letter to physicians informing them of two cases of fulminant hepatic failure/necrosis resulting in liver transplanation in two patients taking Multaq (dronedarone), CardioBrief has learned. The two patients were women in their 70′s with no other apparent causes of liver injury or known elevations of liver function [...]
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Merck’s thrombin receptor antagonist, vorapaxar, has suffered a major setback in its clinical trial program. In one trial, TRACER, the study drug is being discontinued and the trial will be closed out. The second trial, TRA-2P TIMI 50, is being curtailed but not stopped. The actions were based on recommendations from the combined Data and [...]
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Jason Layne Davis, a US Army cardiologist, has pleaded guilty to accepting nearly $5,000 from Guidant. Last year Guidant paid $600,000 to settle claims that it had illegally paid Davis so that he would use the company’s devices at Madigan Army Hospital. Accepting a payment from an illegal source is a misdemeanor punishable by up [...]
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Two papers published in the New England Journal of Medicine shed new light on the important but often mysterious role of HDL cholesterol in cardiovascular disease. In the first paper, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania studied 1,000 healthy volunteers and patients with coronary artery disease and observed a strong inverse relationship between cholesterol efflux from macrophages (a [...]
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A large network meta-analysis has found “little evidence” to suggest that any of the commonly used NSAIDs or COX 2 inhibitors are safe in terms of cardiovascular risk. In a paper published in BMJ, Sven Trelle and colleagues analyzed data from 31 trials in which patients receiving an NSAID were compared to another NSAID or [...]
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The Swedish Heart Failure Registry followed more than 5,000 patients treated with the angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) candsartan or losartan between 2000 and 2009. According to a paper published in JAMA, survival at one year was 90% in the candesartan group compared to 83% in the losartan group. Five-year survival was 61% and 44%. After [...]
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Abbott announced today that it had received CE Mark approval for Absorb, its bioresorbable vascular scaffold (BVS) device. The device props a narrowed coronary artery open but then dissolves within 2 years, leaving the patient without a permanent implant. One hope for the device is that it will allow stent patients to safely discontinue dual antiplatelet [...]
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[Updated]– A study in JAMA earlier this week received a lot of attention when it reported that 22.5% of ICD implantations in the US did not have a firm basis in evidence. The study was derived from a very large dataset taken from the NCDR ICD registry, which was established by the American College of [...]
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A meta-analysis in the Journal of Clinical Oncology suggests that bevacizumab (Avastin) significantly raises the risk for heart failure when given to patients with breast cancer. Toni Choueiri and colleagues analyzed data from 3,784 patients and found a significant increase in the incidence of heart failure among those taking bevacizumab compared with those taking placebo [...]
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