We still don’t know what COVID-19 is doing to the heart or how we should be investigating it and treating it. Last month JAMA Cardiology published a German cohort study of 100 patients recently recovered from COVID-19… A number of striking problems with the study were noted on Twitter……
Statin Critic Accused Of Image Manipulation In Earlier Research
February 8, 2018 by 7 Comments
A journalist who has been a frequent critic of statins has been publicly accused of scientific misconduct involving image manipulation in an earlier research paper. Maryanne Demasi is an Australian journalist who has a PhD in Rheumatology from the Royal Adelaide Hospital in South Australia. She has been a frequent critic of statins, a proponent of…
PNAS Paper By Prominent Cardiologist And Dean Retracted
April 6, 2016 by Leave a Comment
A 2002 PNAS paper has been retracted by its authors, including senior author Pascal Goldschmidt, a prominent cardiologist and Dean of the University of Miami School of Medicine. News of the retraction was reported by Retraction Watch on Tuesday. The paper, “Deficient Smad7 expression: A putative molecular defect in scleroderma,”has been cited 198 times, Retraction Watch reported. Here is…
The Shaky Scientific Edifice: Watching Retracted And Unretracted Papers
September 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment
The good news is that retracted papers really are worse than papers that have not been retracted. The bad news is that unretracted papers still have plenty of problems. That’s the inevitable conclusion of a fascinating new paper from Darrel Francis’s group in the UK. In the past few years the same group has exposed fraud and…
Embattled Stem Cell Researchers Sue Harvard And Brigham And Women’s Hospital
December 17, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Two embattled and highly controversial stem cell researchers are suing the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School for an ongoing investigation into their research. The investigation has already resulted in the retraction of one paper in Circulation and an expression of concern about another paper in the Lancet. The suit was filed by Piero Anversa, the highly prominent…
Paper Behind The Green Coffee Bean Diet Craze Retracted
October 21, 2014 by Leave a Comment
The “scientific” paper that helped ignite the green coffee bean diet craze has been retracted. The details of the retraction and the full background of the story were fully reported by Ivan Oransky on Retraction Watch. The paper, published in Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Obesity: Targets and Therapy, purported to report the substantial weight loss findings of a randomized, double-blind,…
A ‘Disappeared’ Article, Finally Published, Finds A Desultory Response To Scientific Misconduct
September 23, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Back in January an article in the European Heart Journal raising the disturbing possibility that guidelines based on fraudulent research may have been responsible for as many as 800,000 deaths was “disappeared” from the journal’s website only minutes after being published. The journal’s editor claimed the article had not been properly peer reviewed. In its place the editors published an editorial refuting…
Dutch Investigation Finds Serious Flaws In Influential New England Journal Of Medicine Study
July 30, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Erasmus Medical Center says it has wrapped up its investigation of Don Poldermans, the disgraced cardiology researcher who was fired for research misconduct. The full extent of the misconduct has never been known, and from an examination of the Erasmus report it appears likely that it never will be known. One major finding– though downplayed in…
Leading European Cardiologist Accused Of Plagiarism
February 10, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Thomas Lüscher, the editor of the European Heart Journal and one of the most prominent cardiologists in Europe, has been accused of plagiarism. An irony in the case is that Lüscher has taken a strong public position against scientific misconduct of all sorts, including plagiarism. … Click here to read the full post on Forbes. …
This Blog Is ‘Not Suitable For Dissemination Through The Internet’
February 9, 2014 by 1 Comment
The editors of the prestigious European Heart Journal have decided that this blog, or at least one recent post, “is “not suitable for dissemination through the internet.” I beg to differ. In an EHJ editorial, Is the panic about beta-blockers in perioperative care justified?, the authors, the editors of the journal, led by editor-in-chief Thomas Lüscher, repeatedly criticize a post I wrote…
Medicine Or Mass Murder? Guideline Based on Discredited Research May Have Caused 800,000 Deaths In Europe Over The Last 5 Years
January 15, 2014 by 2 Comments
Last summer British researchers provoked concern when they published a paper raising the possibility that by following an established guideline UK doctors may have caused as many as 10,000 deaths each year. Now they have gone a step further and published an estimate that the same guideline may have led to the deaths of as many…
First Retraction In the Don Poldermans Case
January 8, 2014 by Leave a Comment
Retraction Watch reports the first formal retraction of a paper by Don Poldermans, the disgraced Dutch cardiovascular researcher. Feringa HH, Elhendy A, Bax JJ, Boersma E, de Jonge R, Schouten O, Karagiannis SE, Schinkel AF, Lindemans J, Poldermans D. Coron Artery Dis. 2006 May;17(3):255-9. Baseline plasma N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide is associated with the extent of stress-induced…
A Paper In The American Journal Of Cardiology About A Study That Was ‘Not Real’
October 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment
New allegations about scientific misconduct have been raised about a cardiology group in a hospital in Italy. Some of the allegations come from a surprising source: Maria Grazia Modena, the former and highly prominent chief of cardiology at the hospital where the research was said to have been performed. The new allegations are the latest…
Saying Sorry May Not Be Good Enough For Novartis
September 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Novartis has issued a formal apology over misconduct relating to valsartan (Diovan) research in Japan, but that apology does not appear likely to satisfy the Japanese Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, which plans to fully investigate the company’s role in the scandal. If necessary, ministry officials are prepared to raid the company’s offices in Japan. A Novartis…
Recent €23 Million Biotech IPO Relied Heavily On Questionable Research
July 8, 2013 by 2 Comments
A successful €23 million initial public offering (IPO) last week was based on highly questionable research, according to a group of UK physicians who have scrutinized the available data. In addition, one of the researchers, a prominent European cardiologist, failed to disclose in a key paper that he helped to start, and held a significant interest…
Paper Raises Hundreds Of Questions About The Integrity Of Stem Cell Research Group
July 2, 2013 by 2 Comments
Serious questions have been raised about the integrity and validity of research performed by a well-established German stem cell research group. A paper published in the International Journal of Cardiology exhaustively details a multitude of discrepancies and contradictions in papers from the researcher’s group. Further, the revelation of such widespread misconduct may lead to broader disturbing questions about…
Suspicions Raised About Another Japanese Cardiovascular Researcher
May 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Significant questions about research misconduct have been raised about a prominent Japanese cardiovascular researcher, Issei Komuro. Last year a Nature paper on which Komuro served as a co-author was corrected because “several images were mistakenly switched or duplicated during preparation of the artwork.” The Nature correction states that the “corrections do not alter any of…
Scrutiny Of Sodium Meta-Analysis In Heart Uncovers Duplicated And Missing Data
May 3, 2013 by Leave a Comment
A meta-analysis published in the journal Heart has been retracted. As Adam Marcus writes in Retraction Watch, the retraction occurred when the journal editors learned “that two of the six studies included in the review contained duplicated data. Those studies, it so happens, were conducted by one of the co-authors [of the meta-analysis].” The article,…
A Closer Look At A Case Of Duplicate Publication In JACC
April 10, 2013 by 2 Comments
The Journal of the American College of Cardiology has published a Notice of Duplication about a review article written by a respected European cardiology researcher who has played a central role in the development of fractional flow reserve (FFR). The brief statement from JACC provides few details and could lead to various interpretations, but a further investigation suggests that the story may…
Embers Of Poldermans Case Still Smoldering
March 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
A prominent US cardiologist has rebuked Don Poldermans, the cardiovascular researcher at the center of a research scandal in the Netherlands. As reported here previously, Poldermans was fired for scientific misconduct by the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, where he had been a professor of medicine and the head of perioperative cardiac care. He was widely published and…
European Heart Journal Retracts Main Paper Of The Kyoto Heart Study
February 2, 2013 by 1 Comment
The editors of the European Heart Journal have retracted the 2009 paper reporting the main results of the Kyoto Heart Study, a randomized, open-labeled study testing the add-on effect of valsartan to conventional therapy in high-risk hypertension. The retraction notice gave no details about the problems that led to the retraction. Here is the full text…
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