Women who smoke or are exposed to tobacco smoke early in their pregnancies are more likely to have children with certain types of congenital heart defects, researchers reported at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2006.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) can benefit from upper-body aerobic exercises, according to a study presented at Scientific Sessions by Diane Treat-Jacobson, Ph.D., R.N., assistant professor at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, Minneapolis. The findings of the study demonstrated significantly increased maximal walking distance and delayed onset of claudication after aerobic arm exercises.
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.