• Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) at 10 years (Part I)

    Updated: 2012-10-30 20:58:11
    Yes it has been 10 years. Actually, it was April 16, 2002 when the first aortic valve was replaced in man in the cath lab and not the operating room. It was done by one of the seminal thinkers in cardiology, Dr. Alain Cribier, who is Chief of Cardiology at Hôspital Charles Nicolle, University of [...]

  • $2.1 Million Grant Boosts Cancer Trials at Florida Hospital

    Updated: 2012-10-26 23:30:36
    More cancer patients will be able to participate in cutting-edge cancer research without leaving the community thanks to a $2.1 million grant Florida Hospital Cancer Institute received this month. The three-year grant from the National Cancer Institute’s Community Clinical Oncology Program is one of the largest federal grants received in Central Florida, and will fund [...]

  • HDl LDLTC ratio

    Updated: 2012-10-25 22:09:03
    HDl LDLTC ratio QUESTION My total cholesterol is 297, LDL 178 and HDL 106 I don't want to take drugs , should I be worried I have tried red rice yeast , beta sistosterol and various other natural alternatives which have made no difference what are the qualifications of the person answering this email ANSWER Hi there , I want to start answering from your last question . For your information , there is a board of collaborators contributing and managing this website . The top collaborator the chief medical editor is me , Dr.Alba , a GP and Master of Medical Science . All the information provided are only for general purposes only as we do not know your entire medical history . We are giving our medical opinions based on the data your provided to us . Therefore , you should consult your

  • Our Inactivity (Part II): Our tax dollars at work

    Updated: 2012-10-25 16:52:26
    I often write that there are some studies that will just never get done because of the logistics and the cost.  They are studies that require funding without a financial reward.  The reward might be a decrease in costs to “society” but drug companies and Wall Street do not function on a society level, they [...]

  • Our Inactivity (Part I)

    Updated: 2012-10-23 16:50:06
    I have blogged in the past about a study which showed that watching TV leads to an increase in death.  Most of this work comes from Australia.  I don’t know whether that is because they have better TV than we do or just less to do.  When I spent some time there, it seemed like [...]

  • Vascular stem cells and atherosclerosis

    Updated: 2012-10-21 12:22:21
    TweetThe development of atherosclerotic diseases involves the proliferation and migration of a variety of cell types.  It has been generally accepted that vascular smooth muscle cells in the arterial wall play a crucial role in this process through a process of ‘de-differentiation’ from a normal contractile phenotype to a proliferative and synthetic state that drives [...]

  • Cardiac MRI detects myocardial infarction in asymptomatic patients

    Updated: 2012-10-21 01:06:57
    TweetUnrecognised myocardial infarction (UMI) may be more prevalent than previously suspected.  Although several population studies have described the prevalence of UMI based on ECG findings, this method has limited sensitivity.  Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging with late gadolinium enhancement has been extensively validated for the detection of myocardial infarction.  The aim of this study was [...]

  • Berlin heart beats ECMO for childhood heart failure

    Updated: 2012-10-20 20:52:48
    TweetHeart failure is uncommon in children but carries a poor prognosis with 46% of children with severe systolic dysfunction dying or undergoing transplantation within five years. Survival among children after heart transplantation is 83% at 3 years, but the limited availability of donor hearts prolongs the waiting period, resulting in a high rate of death [...]

  • A First

    Updated: 2012-10-18 20:41:17
    I do not believe that this has ever happened. It does, however, point to the ongoing relationship between Medicine and everything else that happens in this country. Medicine is the 800 pound Gorilla that needs to be addressed but is still just sitting in the corner eating all the bananas in sight. The event I [...]

  • New toys and what the boys and girls of medicine do with them (Part III)

    Updated: 2012-10-11 21:33:56
    In keeping with my last several blogs regarding the use of the new antithrombins, an article was published in September in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.  As an aside, one of the recent trends has been subdividing our journals into sections.  In the past you received the Journal Circulation (Circ) or the Journal The Journal [...]

  • New Toys and what the Boys and Girls of Medicine do with them (Part II)

    Updated: 2012-10-09 22:06:53
    In these blog posts, I am discussing the utilization of drugs after the drugs are approved. One factoid that you must understand is this: the FDA approves drugs based on a series of studies regarding the use of a drug in a specific case. With the drugs I am discussing, I am referring to their use in atrial fibrillation. The [...]

  • FAME II: FFR guided PCI versus medical therapy

    Updated: 2012-10-08 10:58:51
    TweetWhilst the role of PCI in the treatment of acute coronary syndromes is rarely debated these days, its use in patients with stable angina remains less certain, particularly since the COURAGE trial which failed to demonstrate a prognostic benefit when compared to optimal medical therapy.  However, few patients in COURAGE had any functional assessment of [...]

  • New toys and what the girls and boys of medicine do with them (Part I)

    Updated: 2012-10-04 15:43:12
    In the field of medicine it’s like Christmas all year-long. What I mean is there is always a shiny new drug, new stent or even a new procedure, like TAVR, to play with. Let me digress for a moment. TAVR or transcatheter aortic valve replacement is being performed at Holy Cross Hospital. TAVR candidates are [...]

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