Cardiology is dead. Here’s two new important pieces of evidence: The FDA’s Cardiovascular and Renal Drugs Advisory Committee hasn’t met since April 2015, and even then it was for the decidedly uninspiring drug cangrelor. And the committee has no meetings scheduled for the rest of this year. Take a look at the list of late-breaking…
Potential Benefits And Dangers of New Troponin Tests
July 24, 2017 by 2 Comments
–What does it mean when 80% of people have detectable levels without CVD? As many as four out of five people without known heart disease will have detectable levels of cardiac troponins with the new high-sensitivity tests, according to a new meta-analysis. Even very low levels within the normal range indicated increased cardiovascular risk, but…
Debate Ensues As USPSTF Finalizes Statin Primary Prevention Guideline
November 13, 2016 by Leave a Comment
–Broad disagreement about how, when, and if to use statins. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has issued final recommendations regarding the use of statins for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in adults. The recommendations, first proposed last December, are broadly consistent with the 2013 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association guidelines. But accompanying the…
Trump’s Risk For A Cardiac Event Is Seven Times Hilary Clinton’s Risk
October 5, 2016 by 6 Comments
Editor’s note: The following guest post is reprinted with permission from Dr. Anthony Pearson, a cardiologist who is the medical director of the Echocardiography Laboratory and Anticoagulation Clinic at St. Lukes Hospital, Chesterfield, Missouri. Dr. Pearson writes The Skeptical Cardiologist blog, where this post originally appeared. Donald Trump recently appeared on the Dr. Oz show and handed a letter to the…
A Novel Way To Think About Primary Prevention, Death, And Statins
March 17, 2016 by 3 Comments
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…
Get A Grip! Global Study Shows Grip Strength Is a Simple And Powerful Predictor Of Death
May 14, 2015 by Leave a Comment
A large global study finds that grip strength is a simple, powerful, and broadly applicable test that can help predict the risk of death and cardiovascular disease. The new findings from the Prospective Urban-Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study were based on data from nearly 140,000 adults in 17 countries. The study participants had their grip strength…
More Guideline Controversy: The Tricky Business Of Calculating Cardiovascular Risk
February 17, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Calculating cardiovascular risk has become a central and highly controversial component of cardiovascular guidelines. Now a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine finds that most of the commonly employed tools seriously overestimate the risk of people today. … Click here to read the full post on Forbes….
Healthy Habits Of Young Women Lead To Long-Term Health Benefits
January 5, 2015 by 1 Comment
It may seem obvious but a new study shows that young women with healthy habits are less likely as they age to get coronary heart disease or go on to develop cardiovascular risk factors like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes. Andrea Chomistek and colleagues analyzed data from more than 88,000 women participating in…
Beyond Kickbacks: More Questions About Unnecessary Cardiovascular Tests
September 8, 2014 by Leave a Comment
On the front page of the Wall Street Journal today is an important story about a fast-growing company accused of giving kickbacks to physicians who order the company’s tests measuring a wide variety of cardiovascular biomarker tests. But the article leaves one major question unasked: even if the company played fully by the rules, are most of the tests medically…
Glucose Measurements Don’t Improve Cardiovascular Risk Assessment
March 25, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Although blood glucose and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) play a central role in diabetes, the value of these measurements to assess cardiovascular risk has been unclear. Now, in a paper published in JAMA, members of the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration analyze data from nearly 300,000 people without known diabetes or cardiovascular disease who were enrolled in…
More Rigorous Family History Improves CV Risk Assessment
February 21, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Although family history has long been recognized as an important cardiovascular risk factor, usual methods to assess risk have not incorporated the family history in a rigorous manner. A new study published in Annals of Internal Medicine finds that systematically collecting family history in a primary practice setting significantly increases the identification of high risk people. Nadeem Quereshi…
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