Long Unsuccessful Heart Failure Drug Once Again At Center Of Controversy

–The long, strange 30-year journey of BiDil. It’s been buried in the avalanche of related news but there’s an interesting and somewhat bizarre cardiology angle to the debate over Trump’s nomination of Tom Price to be the next HHS Secretary. ProPublica reported on Friday that last summer Price went to bat for the makers of…

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A New Novartis Heart Failure Drug Might Be A Blockbuster

I try to avoid using words like “blockbuster” and “breakthrough” when writing about new drugs and treatments. I’ve been disappointed too many times. But, though they’ve been in short supply lately in cardiovascular medicine, sometimes there really are breakthroughs and blockbusters. In my career writing about cardiovascular medicine I’ve seen the introduction of the ACE…

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Possible Cognitive Benefits Found In Dementia Patients Taking Centrally Acting ACE Inhibitors

An observational study from Ireland raises the intriguing possibility that certain blood pressure lowering drugs, centrally acting ACE inhibitors, may help slow the cognitive decline that is a hallmark of people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. The study, published in BMJ Open, followed the rates of cognitive decline in 3 groups of patients: dementia patients being treated…

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Many CHF Patients Not Receiving– Or Getting Benefits From– High Dose ACE Inhibitors And ARBs

Although current guidelines recommend that ACE inhibitors and angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARBs) be used in high doses in patients with congestive heart failure, many CHF patients currently receive lower than recommended doses of these drugs. In a research letter published online in Archives of Internal Medicine, investigators in Montreal analyzed data from 43,405 patients with a first…

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