News
FDA approves Abbott’s Portico valve for TAVR
- Author:
- Steve Stiles
The approval, based largely on the recently published PORTICO-IDE trial, is for patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis at ‘high or...
News
Most muscle pain on statins not a drug effect: SAMSON in print
- Author:
- Steve Stiles
Trial makes a strong case for the pain usually being a nocebo effect.
News
Are ESC’s new heart failure guidelines already outdated?
- Author:
- Steve Stiles
It was hard not to think of the upcoming presentation on EMPEROR-Preserved, with its potentially profound impact on HF management, when new HF...
News
LOOP trial undercuts value of long-term continuous ECG screening for AFib
- Author:
- Steve Stiles
It may be that short bouts of AFib on long-term continuous monitoring aren’t worth seeking out just so anticoagulation can start, even in elderly...
News
APAF-CRT: ‘Ablate and pace’ cuts mortality in narrow-QRS HF, permanent AFib
- Author:
- Steve Stiles
Heart block by ablation plus CRT emerged as far better than rate-control drug therapy for the trial’s narrow-QRS patients with severely...
News
GUIDE-HF: CardioMEMS-guided meds fall short in mild to moderate heart failure
- Author:
- Steve Stiles
Used more broadly than now indicated for the PA pressure monitor implant, the strategy may have cut some prepandemic HF admissions. But the trial’...
News
Eyes on ESC ‘21: Hope for EMPEROR-Preserved, guidelines remade
- Author:
- Steve Stiles
But the congress will feature far more than, potentially, results the heart failure world has been longing to see and a raft of new guidelines....
News
New-AFib risk may not rise with light drinking, may fall with wine
- Author:
- Steve Stiles
The report raises the possibility that, “for current consumers, drinking red or white wine could potentially be a safer alternative to other types...
News
DOACs best aspirin after ventricular ablation: STROKE-VT
- Author:
- Steve Stiles
Cerebrovascular protection was far better on DOACs after catheter ablation for VT or extrasystoles in the trial and may yet be further improved....
News
ESC heart failure guideline to integrate bounty of new meds
- Author:
- Steve Stiles
It has a simple answer to a seemingly complex issue: how to merge the newly approved with mainstay drug therapies. And it conditionally okays meds...
News
FDA to revise statin pregnancy contraindication
- Author:
- Steve Stiles
The changes emphasize that “statins are safe to prescribe in patients who can become pregnant” and reassure women that harm is unlikely from...
News
Heart failure med undertreatment because of older age common, flouts evidence
- Author:
- Steve Stiles
The oldest less often received guideline-specified meds, especially at close to full dosage, maybe because advanced age is seen as an “intrinsic”...
News
No overall statin effect seen on dementia, cognition in ASPREE analysis
- Author:
- Steve Stiles
Still, there was an inconclusive link between statins and incident Alzheimer’s dementia in one subgroup of patients in the trial; researchers...
News
Stroke risk in new-onset atrial fib goes up with greater alcohol intake
- Author:
- Steve Stiles
That increasing risk, which is independent of oral anticoagulation, may attenuate or disappear in patients who give up drinking after their AF...
News
Are left atrial thrombi that defy preprocedure anticoagulation predictable?
- Author:
- Steve Stiles
Features that predispose to such persistent LA thrombi, which are not very rare, could potentially guide more targeted TEE screening before rhythm...