• Pradaxa’s Issues (Part II)

    Updated: 2012-06-28 19:33:50
    Several days ago, a compendium of the safety reports of the FDA was published by the Institute for Safe Medical Practices. These safety reports arrive at the FDA in several ways. They are reported to the FDA by drug companies, by physicians and by patients. The Institute for Safe Medical Practices is an independent nonprofit [...]

  • Pradaxa’s issues (Part I)

    Updated: 2012-06-26 20:29:14
    I have blogged about Pradaxa in the past, and I have tried to highlight both the good and the bad about this drug and the reasons that patients need the antithrombin agents.  After 30 years practicing cardiology, I am still amazed and concerned about the issues surrounding long-term anticoagulation for all of the indications for [...]

  • Good coffee news: Drink helps prevent heart failure

    Updated: 2012-06-26 20:16:23
    Java lovers drink up! A study released this week found that those who drink coffee have a lower risk of heart failure. That preventive effect adds heart failure to the list of conditions for which risk is decreased as coffee consumption increases. Those other conditions include type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and now heart failure.     The study from [...]

  • Cholesterol hdl ldl why is important to increase hdl and lower ldl cholesterol

    Updated: 2012-06-23 03:44:58
    , Hdl Ldl Cholesterol How to increase Hdl and lower Ldl naturally What is cholesterol hdl ldl all about Find out what ldl cholesterol is Why high ldl levels can lead to heart disease What are the normal ldl levels How to lower ldl cholesterol What foods and diet to choose for lowering ldl and increase hdl levels I may understand your worrisome What The answers you will find in In the following paragraphs you will get to know what main topics inside this website are . I want you to understand that I have draw up several sections , according to the topics of . interest First of all , as the title says , various and worthy cholesterol hdl ldl information . Find out the answer to what is ldl cholesterol question . Also , get to know how to calculate ldl and what the bad effects of high ldl are

  • Something else we should give up on

    Updated: 2012-06-21 22:07:13
    I am always surprised that patients will take all sorts of nutritional products, or what we call nutraceuticals, but are loath to take drugs that have been tested and vetted to do what they are supposed to do. This becomes most evident when the discussions of statins arises particularly in primary prevention.  Patients are not [...]

  • It’s time to give up aspirin for primary prevention (Part II)

    Updated: 2012-06-19 21:31:23
    No one disputes the role of aspirin in secondary prevention.  It’s primary prevention that has an issue.  Primary prevention is the use of a substance or a treatment to prevent something.  In this case it is the use of aspirin to prevent cardiovascular death, stroke or myocardial infarction in its two types: Q wave and [...]

  • It’s time to give up on aspirin for primary prevention (Part I)

    Updated: 2012-06-14 21:07:08
    At times there is a significant disconnect between facts, theory and use in medicine.  Instead of facts and science, physicians and patients substitute urban legend and wishful thinking. Why some trends are so hard to change has often been a mystery to me.  This is especially true when the habit that should be changed causes [...]

  • Cholesterol Medicine Blood Pressure

    Updated: 2012-06-14 01:55:34
    Increase Hdl Lower Ldl Hdl Ldl Ratio High Cholesterol Atheroslerosis Low fat Subscribe To This Site Cholesterol Medicine Blood Pressure QUESTION Can cholesterol medicine raise blood pressure ANSWER Hi , there This is a very important question , because several people think that drugs used in the cholesterol reduction therapy are causing elevation of the blood pressure . This is not true if one is taking the medicines approved by the . FDA You have to know that the FDA has approved only one group of drugs , named statins as treatment of high cholesterol . However , there are several other drugs , which are used from a lot of people in purpose to reduce cholesterol The bad thing is that no one can inform you about the possible side effects like elevation of the blood pressure of drugs which

  • My mother is overjoyed (Part II)

    Updated: 2012-06-12 18:46:08
    This concept of dark chocolate being a health benefit has been postulated before and actually has a scientific basis.  Published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology in November 2010 was an article describing the effects of eating dark chocolate on normal participants of a small study.  These participants ate 75 grams of dark unsweetened chocolate [...]

  • Quality improvement measures ameliorate ACS outcomes

    Updated: 2012-06-10 10:21:39
    TweetWhile multiple randomised controlled trials have outlined the optimal care for patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS), evidence-based therapies are not always applied, particularly in low- and middle-income countries.  In this Brazilian study, the authors hypothesised that a multifaceted quality improvement (QI) intervention could improve the use of evidence-based therapies and improve ACS outcomes. BRIDGE-ACS [...]

  • My mother is overjoyed (Part I)

    Updated: 2012-06-07 16:48:00
    An article was published last week that brought joy to my mother’s heart.  I find articles of this nature somewhat disingenuous, but they do in some way serve a purpose. This article was published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ 2012;344:e3657) and is titled “The effectiveness and cost effectiveness of dark chocolate consumption as preventive [...]

  • Goodbye Lipitor. So long Plavix.

    Updated: 2012-06-05 18:17:52
    It is the end of one age and the beginning of another.  Two drugs that accounted for the number one and number two selling drugs in the world are now both generic.  The two drugs together had roughly $25 billion in sales…a year.  In the United States in 2010, Lipitor sold $5,272,576,000 and Plavix sold $4,675,483,000.  [...]

  • PCI in centres without surgical backup

    Updated: 2012-06-04 18:34:46
    TweetAs percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has advanced, improved technology and increased collective experience have led to a marked reduction in the need for emergency coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG), with only 0.15% of patients requiring emergency surgical intervention in 2002.  In fact, PCI is now commonly practiced in hospitals without on-site cardiothoracic back-up, something that [...]

  • Azithromycin and cardiac death

    Updated: 2012-06-04 10:07:56
    Tweet Macrolide antibiotics are associated with prolongation of the QT interval in susceptible individuals and increase the risk of serious ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death.  Azithromycin has become one of the most widely used macrolides worldwide due to its broad spectrum, excellent tissue penetrance, and long half-life, and has been reported to be minimally cardiotoxic.  [...]

  • MicroRNA-214 attenuates ischaemia-reperfusion injury

    Updated: 2012-06-04 10:04:21
    TweetIschaemia reperfusion injury (IR) is characterised by  abnormal increases in intracellular calcium during myocardial reperfusion that lead to cardiomyocyte death.  In addition, IR is accompanied by an increase in the expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) such as miR-214, which has previously been identified as a sensitive marker of cardiac stress. In this study, Aurora et al. [...]

  • Atrial Fibrillation: Women at higher stroke risk

    Updated: 2012-06-04 09:59:44
    TweetPatients with atrial fibrillation (AF) have a risk of stroke that is five times greater than that of the general population.  Moreover, it has previously been described that women with atrial fibrillation have a higher annual rate of stroke than men (3% vs. 1.6%).    The reasons for this remain unclear, although previous studies have [...]

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