Daily Archives: March 20, 2017
Mon, Mar 20 – Top 10 Medical News Stories
20 Mar, 2017 | 00:01h | UTC
#ACC17 – Highlights from the American College of Cardiology’s 66th Annual Scientific Session
See also: First Clinical Trial of CTO Procedures Fails to Deliver – Medscape (free registration required)
– Among patients with at least one coronary chronic total occlusion (CTO), percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) added to optimal medical therapy did not improve outcomes.
– “DECISION-CTO is a strong RCT testing medical therapy to CTO procedures. No diff in outcomes and, crucially, no diff in angina. Wow” (RT @drjohnm – see tweet).
Editorial: PCSK9 Inhibition to Reduce Cardiovascular Events (free)
See also: Ten Quick Thoughts on FOURIER – Medscape (free registration required) AND Pricey New Cholesterol Drug’s Effect On Heart Disease Is More Modest Than Hoped – NPR Health News (free)
“PCSK9 costs 14K per year or 28K for 2 years, would need to treat 66 patients to prevent one event at cost of $1,848,000/ 2 yrs, $924,000/yr” (RT @CMichaelGibson – see tweet)
“Evolocumab did not reduce cardiovascular or death from any cause. There was not even a trend for improvement” (see Medscape commentary above)
Editorial: Complete Revascularization in ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction? (free)
See also: FFR-Guided Complete Revascularization Tops PCI of Culprit Artery Alone in Acute STEMI – TCTMD (free)
“The advantage in Compare-Acute was mostly due to fewer repeat revascularizations; larger trials are needed to assess hard outcomes.” (TCTMD commentary above).
See also: TAVR or Surgery for Patients with Severe Aortic Stenosis and Intermediate Surgery Risk? – Journal Watch (free)
“Mortality and stroke at 2 years were similar with surgery and transcatheter aortic-valve replacement, but different adverse events were associated with each procedure” (from commentary above)
“Effect persists for years, underscoring the need for mental health screening and treatment”.
7 – #ACC17 – Coronary atherosclerosis in indigenous South American Tsimane: a cross-sectional cohort study – The Lancet (link to abstract – $ required for full-text)
See also: ‘Healthiest hearts in the world’ found – BBC News (free) AND Indigenous Bolivians Have Some of the Healthiest Hearts – New York Times (free access to 10 articles per month)
Editorial: Reduced-Intensity Rivaroxaban for the Prevention of Recurrent Venous Thromboembolism (free)
See also: Rivaroxaban Bests Aspirin for Preventing Recurrence of VTE: EINSTEIN CHOICE – TCTMD (free) AND ACC: Even Very Low Dose Rivaroxaban Prevents Recurrent VTE – MedPage Today (free registration required) AND Low-Dose Rivaroxaban vs. Aspirin Reduces Recurrent VTE in EINSTEIN CHOICE – Latest in Cardiology, American College of Cardiology (free)
“The number needed to treat to prevent one VTE was 30 with the 10 mg dose of rivaroxaban and 33 with the 20 mg dose of rivaroxaban” (see Latest in Cardiology commentary above).
See also: Zika virus also may have harmful heart effects, research shows in first report in adults – ScienceDaily (free) AND Could Zika Affect the Heart? – Journal Watch (free)
See also: Lifestyle intervention leads to 10-point drop in systolic blood pressure – ScienceDaily (free) AND Internet-Based Lifestyle Counseling Reduces Hypertension, Improves CVD Risk – CardiologyAdvisor (free) AND ACC: Online Videos Help HTN Adherence: Blood pressure, Framingham risk improved in small trial – MedPage Today (free registration required)