GLG News by Non-Electrophysiologist Cardiologists (US)

Heart transplant donor organs will now be available from anywhere in the world.Even if the same number of organs were available,  the ability to move these organs over greater distances without loss of viability will allow better matching and perhaps better long term outcomesLong term safety...

Much attention has been brought to HDL, its metabolism and potential for risk modification with HDL raising therapies.  With the demise of the CETP inhibitor torcetrapib (ILLUMINATE and ILLUSTRATE NEJM 2007; 356:1304-1316) and the ACAT inhibitor pactimibe in the ACTIVATE study (NEJM 354:1253-1263)...

1. In Meteor, carotid IMT progressed in both Crestor and placebo groups.2. However, this was a low risk group of patients, hence, the potential benefit is hard to demonstrate.3. Previous studies with lipitor and lowering cholesterol to very low levels were more impressive in terms of regression but...

This study compared Crestor 40 mg daily with a combination of Crestor and Zetia on getting patients to their LDL goals. Several of the results struck me: in my experience, I can usually get a larger percentage of patients to goal on monotherapy at lower doses of Crestor; this study and a number of others...

UNLOAD has provided additional information about the potential utility for ultrafiltration in the management of acutely decompensated patients with CHF admitted to the hospital for volume unloading routinely performed with IV diuretics.Although safety and efficacy may be superior to diuretic based regimens...

 Intensive outpatient monitoring of patients with heart failure may provide only small benefits in outcomes, and without reducing hospitalizations significantly, will only add to healthcare costs

 The Prognostic Value of T-Wave Alternans in Patients with Heart Failure Due to Nonischemic Cardiomyopathy: Results of the T-Wave Alternans in Patients with Heart Failure (ALPHA) Study demonstrative a high negative predictive value for sudden cardiac death in patients with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy...

The replacement od bare metal stents by drug eluting stents has been remarkable.  Only now some 3 years later are we beginning to learn about the potential for late stent thrombosis.  The Medtronic stent at 2 year analysis does not appear at least early on to be plaqued by this concern and...

Medtronic's announcement of favorable results in the Endeavor trial, which compared Endeavor, their new stent and delivery device  with Cypher, Johnson and Johnson's currently marketed and highly profitable coronary stent, does not guarentee FDA approval, but all things point in that...

United Therapeutics has had the benefit of the doubt re use of IV remodulin based on "relative convenience",  despite expense and has not uniformly been adopted across PH centers and providers.  Despite the small overall number of infections, the rate of the more life threatening gram negative...