Using a stent to open a blocked coronary artery is the treatment of choice in the early period of a heart attack (myocardial infarction). A limitation is the risk of dislodging part of the clot, leading to new downstream blockages of smaller vessels. One strategy that has been under development for a long time is thrombectomy, in…
AstraZeneca Drug ‘Approaching The Point Of Diminishing Returns’
March 14, 2015 by Leave a Comment
After a heart attack (myocardial infarction or MI) patients remain at high risk for recurrent events. The precise role of blood thinning with dual antiplatelet therapy to lower this risk has been the subject of considerable disagreement. Now a new study offers fresh evidence that one important strategy, prolonged dual antiplatelet therapy, can lower risk…
AstraZeneca Drug Improves Outcomes After Heart Attacks
January 14, 2015 by Leave a Comment
For the first time a very large trial has shown that dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) improves cardiovascular outcomes when given to patients one to three years after a heart attack. Because it has been shown previously to reduce the high risk of recurrent events for up to a year following a heart attack, DAPT is considered to be…
Study Offers Reassurance About Newer Drug-Eluting Stents
July 1, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Drug-eluting stents (DES) have been viewed as a great advance over earlier stents and balloon angioplasty because they result in many fewer cases of restenosis. But enthusiasm for the first generation of DES was somewhat curbed due to reports of late stent thrombosis (ST), a rare but very dangerous complication. Now findings from a large ongoing…
Intensive Insulin Therapy Saves Lives– But Is The Finding Still Relevant?
May 12, 2014 by 1 Comment
A trial that started back in 1990 continues to demonstrate a significant mortality advantage for intensive insulin therapy in heart attack (MI) patients. But experts say the trial design is so outdated that the findings should have no influence on clinical practice today. During the years 1990 through 1993 the Swedish DIGAMI I (Diabetes Mellitus…
Massive Heart Attack Or Massive Journalistic Irresponsibility?
January 5, 2014 by 2 Comments
A great lesson in how not to report about heart attacks in the general media, from Gary Schwitzer, health journalism watchdog: Journalists: don’t use the term “massive” heart attack if you don’t know what you’re talking about … Very quickly, the term “massive heart attack” started going viral among Minnesota news organizations and on Twitter and…
Fibrinolysis May Benefit Late-Arriving STEMI Patients
March 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Although primary PCI has emerged as the best treatment for STEMI, most patients don’t receive this treatment within the early time frame when it is known to be most beneficial. Delay in presentation is one important factor. Another is that most patients don’t arrive at a PCI-capable hospital and cannot be transferred fast enough to a…
Timing Of Heart Attacks Shifted In New Orleans After Katrina
January 7, 2013 by 3 Comments
Prior to Hurricane Katrina, heart attacks in New Orleans followed a well-known circadian and septadian (today’s word of the day, meaning day of the week) pattern, with predictable increases on Mondays and in the morning hours. Now a new study finds that the notorious 2005 hurricane dramatically altered that pattern for at least three years,…
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