PPIs cleared of cardiovascular risk but hip fracture risk being reviewed
WASHINGTON (Reuters), Dec 11 - U.S. regulators said on Monday they had cleared AstraZeneca Plc's Prilosec and Nexium of links to heart problems, but disclosed a review of a potential risk for hip fractures with use of proton pump inhibitors. Last December, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported on a study suggesting that long-term use of the drugs increases the risk of hip fractures in adults over 50.
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Coronary artery calcium predicts heart disease events in low-risk women
NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Dec 11 - In women considered at low risk for heart disease based on their Framingham risk score, the presence of coronary artery calcium, determined with CT, predicts coronary heart disease (CHD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) events, new research shows.
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CTA predicts mortality, shows variable risk per vessel
Two major cautionary notes attached to coronary CT angiography (CTA) are the scarcity of literature proving a benefit in patients at risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) and its high radiation dose. Researchers at UCLA-Harbor Medical Center in Torrance, CA, believe they've gone a long way toward conquering both limitations with a low-dose 64-slice CT exam protocol and participation in several new studies suggesting a high prognostic value for CTA studies.
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Temperature measurement localizes culprit plaque in coronary occlusion
NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Dec 7 - Temperature measured with a thermal wire during percutaneous coronary intervention accurately localizes the culprit plaque in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) with coronary total occlusion, according to a Japanese researchers, who compared angiographic findings, the atherosclerotic plaque temperature of the infarct-related artery, and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) findings in 45 patients with an anterior AMI.
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Bristol-Myers Squibb to divest imaging unit, including Cardiolite radiopharmaceutical
Pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb is planning to sell off its medical imaging unit as part of a restructuring of the New York City-based company. The firm's medical imaging division markets the Cardiolite technetium-based radiopharmaceutical, as well as other radiopharmaceuticals and ultrasound contrast media.
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DSCT matches angiography for stenosis detection -- even in fast hearts
Dual-source CT (DSCT) offers diagnostic accuracy comparable to that of invasive coronary angiography when it comes to identifying significant coronary artery stenoses, according to researchers from Germany. To test whether DSCT could match angiography in accuracy, they examined patients with suspected coronary artery disease and found DSCT angiography offered high sensitivity for detecting stenosis.
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Patients may expect too much of heart procedures
NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Dec 3 - Some heart disease patients may have overly optimistic expectations of procedures used to unclog coronary arteries, new research suggests. The study included patients at four U.S. hospitals who underwent angiography. Overall, 633 patients were told they should consider either angioplasty or bypass surgery. The researchers interviewed these patients and the doctors who performed the angiography about their expectations of benefits.
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Cholesterol seen tied to heart disease, not stroke
WASHINGTON (Reuters), Dec 3 - Researchers aiming to establish whether high cholesterol raises the risk of stroke said on Thursday they were baffled by findings indicating lower cholesterol levels were not linked to reduced stroke deaths.
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Drug-eluting stents improve patient outcomes in routine practice
NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Dec 3 - In general, drug-eluting stents (DES) achieve better results than bare-metal stents do, U.S. researchers report in the November 20 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. A team from Rhode Island Hospital in Providence and studied data from 2004 for 1460 patients who received at least one DES. These data were compared with earlier records for 1,763 patients who received at least one bare-metal stent.
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U.S. panel backs Abbott's drug-coated heart stent
GAITHERSBURG, Md. (Reuters), Dec 3 - Abbott Laboratories Inc. moved closer to joining the U.S. market for drug-coated heart stents on Thursday as an advisory panel backed the company's experimental device.
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Patent foramen ovale linked to cryptogenic stroke in older patients
NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Dec 3 - A patent foramen ovale, which enables right-to-left intracardiac shunting, is associated with an increased risk of cryptogenic stroke in patients younger than 55 years of age. Physicians in Germany report in November 29 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that a similar association is observed in older patients.
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MDMA abuse linked to valvular heart disease
NEW YORK (Reuters Health), Nov 29 - The use of the recreational drug MDMA (3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine), commonly known as ecstasy, can cause cardiac valvulopathy in young adults, investigators in Belgium report in the November issue of the American Journal of Cardiology. The group examined the potential clinical ramifications of MDMA use by comparing echocardiographic data from 29 subjects who had used MDMA for at least six months and 29 age-matched controls.
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Cardiologists, orthopods boost imaging use and adoption rates, studies find
CHICAGO - The practice of medicine has always been shaped by turf battles, and the current conflict over physician self-referral -- in both the local practice and the federal government arenas -- is the latest thorny issue for radiologists. Two studies presented Monday at the 2007 RSNA meeting explored the problem.
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Ungated calcium CT scans could permit dual-purpose screening
CHICAGO - Could a one-scan CT lung screening and cardiac risk assessment be feasible? Perhaps, say researchers from South Korea who performed low-dose thoracic multidetector-row CT (MDCT) in a group of smokers and ran calcium tests on the data. They shared their results in a presentation Sunday at the RSNA 2007 meeting.
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MRI OK for patients with newer implanted cardiac devices
CHIGAGO - Patients with implanted pacemakers or defibrillators no longer need to be routinely denied much-needed MR scans, according to a presentation Sunday at the 2007 RSNA meeting. Researchers from Italy found that 1.5-tesla MR was safe in their patients with the new generation of cardiac devices.
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New contrast agent could replace some nuclear stress testing with echo
Researchers in the U.K. believe that an investigative echocardiography contrast agent could soon be used to replace nuclear cardiography stress exams for the initial detection of coronary artery disease. Their preliminary results of two trials suggest that perfusion stress echocardiography is as accurate as nuclear stress testing for detecting coronary artery disease.
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