A program of time-specific ‘blister’ packaging, individualized patient education by a pharmacist and bimonthly pharmacist followup increases medication adherence from 61.2 percent to 96.9 percent in elderly patients at risk for heart disease.
Researchers in the randomized Multinational Etoricoxib and Diclofenac Arthritis Long-term (MEDAL) study program found identical rates of thrombotic cardiovascular events in patients with osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis treated with either the COX-2 inhibitor or the traditional NSAID. Christopher Cannon, M.D., an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston, noted that this appears to contradict earlier observational studies associating COX-2 inhibitors with higher rates of thrombotic cardiovascular events.
Results of a randomized trial of folic acid and B-vitamins in secondary prevention of cardiovascular events in women did not support their use as preventive agents against cardiovascular disease in women with established vascular disease or those at high risk.
Another late-breaker presented here was the appropriately named CHICAGO Study, in which 462 patients with type 2 diabetes were randomly selected at Chicago heart clinics to receive treatment with pioglitazone or with glimepriride.
The Framingham Heart Study revolutionized how physicians approach cardiovascular disease (CVD) and placed prevention at the forefront of cardiology.
Youth league coaches and parents may feel reassured when their athletes wear commercially made protective gear, but researchers in Minneapolis warn that standard equipment may not protect the heart adequately against hard contact.
Acrimonious debate over the use of bare metal stents (BMS) versus drug-eluting stents (DES) is ending. Four new studies presented during a Monday news conference are quickly turning what had been open warfare between BMS and DES advocates into more measured discussions.
The greatest risk in science is to stop taking risks,? said Elias A. Zerhouni, Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Md.
Early mortality rates for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction in randomized trials have decreased dramatically over the past 20 years, from 13-percent one-month mortality in 1986 to less than 4 percent today.
A novel anticoagulant and its complementary antidote was proven safe in the first human trial, say researchers from Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C. The system could be valuable, holding promise that clinicians could titrate anticoagulation, as it may not require monitoring.