Notes from ACC — Day 2

Those of you who run or ride know what the second day back after a break feels like. The first day is awesome. The body is fresh and snappy; there is an adrenaline rush at the start. It’s easy to overcook it on Day 1. Then there is me at the ACC on day 2. The loss of an hour (damn it, why do we mess with time?) plus the jet lag hit me hard. My mind was foggy most of the day. Anyways, here are a few highlights. I started the day by going to a very general talk. Dr. Valentin Fuster, perhaps the true grandfather of the ACC, offered a view of Cardiology from the stars. With his beautiful Spanish accent and calm demeanor, it fell more like a spiritual pep rally. His look into future focused on the role of transforming heart cells with biological means. I was most drawn to his ending: He encouraged us to look at science and medicine with humility, but to remain motivated. “Life is a circle…If you keep trying, it will be amazing what you can do.” I bounced across the hall to get to a talk on the novel anticoagulants. The one that struck me most was this look back at the Rocket-AF trial. It dealt with the important topic of what happens when interrupting anticoagulant therapy. This comes up literally every day: Can Mr Smith stop his anticoagulant for oral surgery, or back injections, or an endoscopy? The conclusion was that interrupting rivaroxaban looked similar to warfarin. The statistics here were complicated, but the take home was that we should minimize t...
Source: Dr John M - Category: Cardiology Authors: Source Type: blogs