More Bad News For The Once Promising Bioresorbable Stent
(Updated) –Problems for the Absorb BVS stent just won’t disappear Bad news for the Absorb BVS stent continues to accumulate, though defenders of the device keep looking for a silver lining. When it was approved in the US last summer the novel device appeared to have a bright future, with many prominent interventional cardiologists predicting...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 31, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Interventional Cardiology & Surgery People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Abbott ABSORB bioresorbable stent BVS DAPT stent throb Source Type: blogs

Interventional Cardiologists Face Major Obstruction In Treatment Of Total Blockages
–Deep divisions over how CTO patients should be treated. In recent years ambitious interventional cardiologists have started to perform PCI on chronic total occlusions (CTOs), though these lesions have long been recognized as among the most difficult to successfully treat. Many other physicians, including some prominent interventional cardiologists, have expressed grave concerns about this expansion...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 29, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Interventional Cardiology & Surgery People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics chronic total occlusion CTO Source Type: blogs

Controversial Pharma CEO To Chair AHA Charity Ball
–The Wizard of Oz-themed ball seeks to raise $2 million on the yellow brick road. The American Heart Association’s annual Heart & Stroke Ball will be chaired by John Thero, the CEO of Amarin Corporation, the controversial pharmaceutical company. Amarin manufactures the prescription fish oil product Vascepa for which it is aggressively seeking an expanded indication...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 24, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes AHA Amarin charity conflict of interest Vascepa Source Type: blogs

TV Ads Pushed Inappropriate Use of Testosterone
–Study: prescriptions spiked in direct response to blizzard of ‘Low T’ ads Television ads for testosterone products were highly successful, leading to dramatic increases in the number of men taking testosterone drugs, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. J. Bradley Layton (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 21, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes advertising DTCA low-T testosterone Source Type: blogs

Another HDL Therapy Crashes and Burns
–Failure of pre-beta HDL mimetic puts another nail in the HDL coffin Once again, an HDL-inspired therapy has failed when put to the test in a clinical trial. Although there are still ongoing trials with other HDL-related therapies, most experts now feel that it is time for the field to turn its attention elsewhere and...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 19, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes cholesterol HDL triglycerides Source Type: blogs

Ebbinghaus Study May Help Refute Doctor Google
–No neurocognitive adverse effects linked to very low LDL levels Reaching very low LDL levels with a PCSK9 inhibitor was not associated with any increase in neurocognitive adverse events, according to the largest and most rigorous study to assess the topic to date. Small and preliminary studies have raised concerns over the possibility of the...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 18, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes adverse events evolocumab Fourier neurocognitive PCSK9 Repatha Source Type: blogs

Novel Drug Delivers Long Term Cholesterol Reduction
A novel drug that dramatically lowers LDL cholesterol and needs to be administered only a few times a year has reached a new milestone. Positive results from a phase II study with the drug, now known as inclisiran, were reported at the American College of Cardiology meeting in Washington, DC and published simultaneously in the...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 17, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes cholesterol inclisiran LDL Medicines Company PCSK9 Source Type: blogs

FOURIER Shows New Cholesterol Drugs Work, But Are They Worth It?
–Doctors and patients now must wrestle with a modestly effective but expensive drug. As it turns out the PCSK9 inhibitor saga ends not with a bang but a whimper. The results of the highly anticipated FOURIER trial show that the drugs work, though not as powerfully as many had hoped and expected. The question now...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 17, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes cholesterol evolocumab LDL lipids PCSK9 Repatha Source Type: blogs

Scott Gottlieb ’ s Sham Ideology Rejects Clinical Trials
Donald Trump has nominated Scott Gottlieb to be the next FDA Commissioner. To his credit, Gottlieb is not certifiably crazy like several of the other candidates who were reported to be under consideration for the job. But he is is a deeply conservative ideologue who is determined to reduce the government’s role in healthcare. On two occasions in...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 14, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Interventional Cardiology & Surgery People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Uncategorized clinical trials FDA hypertension renal denervation Scott Gottlieb Trump Wall Street Journal Source Type: blogs

For Scott Gottlieb, Business Trumps Health
Donald Trump has nominated Scott Gottlieb to be the next FDA Commissioner. To his credit, Gottlieb is not certifiably crazy like several of the other candidates who were reported to be under consideration for the job. But he is is a deeply conservative ideologue who is determined to reduce the government’s role in healthcare. On two occasions in...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 14, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Interventional Cardiology & Surgery People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics American Enterprise Institute CMS FDA Scott Gottlieb TAVR Trump Source Type: blogs

Has Nutrition Science Been Poisoned?
–The inevitable weaknesses of observational and diet studies “Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition,” Adam Smith wrote more than 200 years ago. Unfortunately, it often seems as if the science of nutrition has itself been poisoned. Two recently published papers illustrate this problem. Nutrition and Mortality A good example of...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 9, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes association causality diet nutrition Source Type: blogs

Call For More Calcium Screening Gets Pushback
–But a zero calcium score can be useful to avoid statins, some argue Coronary artery calcium (CAC) scans should be widely used in routine clinical practice to improve the detection of coronary disease in people without known disease, according to the authors of a new review in JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging. But many experts urged caution,...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - March 6, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes calcium coronary artery calcium CV risk Framingham risk assessment screening Source Type: blogs

Top Cardiologist Blasts Nutrition Guidelines
–Salim Yusuf says new evidence fails to support many major diet recommendations. One of the world’s top cardiologists says that many of the major nutrition guidelines have no good basis in science. “I’m not a nutrition scientist and that may be an advantage because every week in the newspaper we read something is good for...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - February 27, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Diabetes People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes carbs diet fats guidelines nutrition salt Source Type: blogs

After Yet Another Failure, Stem Cell Leaders Double Down
–Could repeated doses of stem cells turn the tide of negative trials? Despite an unrelieved history of negative trials, stem cell leaders continue to defend their field. In response to the failure of yet another cardiac stem clinical trial, Roberto Bolli, a prominent leader in the field, argued that it’s time for a “paradigm shift” in...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - February 21, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Interventional Cardiology & Surgery People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics searching for the pony Stem cell stem cell therapy Source Type: blogs

International Experts Call Salt Guidelines Far Too Restrictive
A broad group of international experts are recommending a far more modest and less draconian approach to sodium restriction than current U.S. and international guidelines. In a new paper, published online in the European Heart Journal, they also focused on the broad gaps of knowledge in the field and drew attention to the paucity of...Click here to continue reading... (Source: CardioBrief)
Source: CardioBrief - February 14, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: People, Places & Events Policy & Ethics Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes evidence guidelines hypertension salt sodium Source Type: blogs