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.
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.
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.
Four research studies presented at Scientific Sessions point to new directions that offer the first promising results in several years.
Logic would hold that an occluded infarct-related artery should be open before the patient is discharged. But the chair of the Occluded Artery Trial (OAT) presented data here showing that stable patients undergoing routine PCI for occluded arteries three to 28 days after MI had virtually the same number of major cardiovascular events as similar patients receiving medication alone.
Making merry is often synonymous with overindulging — whether from holiday feasts or rich desserts or alcoholic beverages — ringing in the holiday season as “heartburn season.”
Over the last several years angioplasty has exceeded coronary bypass surgery as the preferred way to treat coronary artery disease. The stents, narrow tubes inserted into the artery to facilitate blood flow, commonly used in the procedure are less invasive than open-heart surgery and offer greater convenience to the patient and the ability to perform more complex procedures.