Category Archives: Clinical Cardiology

August 29, 2020 09:00 ET | Source: Medtronic plc ESC Congress: New Research Highlights First-Line Use of Cryoablation as Highly Effective, and with Improved Quality of Life Scores DUBLIN, Aug. 29, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Medtronic plc (NYSE:MDT), the global leader in medical technology, today announced clinical trial results demonstrating superiority of the Arctic Front Advance Cardiac Cryoballoon and Freezor MAX Cardiac CryoAblation Catheter for the first-line treatment (prior to drug therapy) of recurrent symptomatic paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF) compared to antiarrhythmic drug (AAD) treatment Continue reading →

Both therapeutic and prophylactic anticoagulation in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 significantly reduce the risk of in-hospital mortality, as well as the need for intubation, when compared with no systemic anticoagulation, according to an observational analysis of patients treated at five New York City hospitals. Overall, the rates of major bleeding were low, although the risk was slightly higher in patients treated with therapeutic anticoagulation. Its an observational study, said lead investigator Girish Nadkarni, MD (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY), discussing the clinical significance of the mortality signal, but it has led to insights that have led to our ongoing clinical trial Continue reading →

While the primary endpoint was not met, exploratory analysis suggests a signal of reduced risk of disease progression of initial triple oral combination therapy vs initial double oral therapy for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) patients Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd, a Janssen Pharmaceutical Company of Johnson & Johnson, today announced results from the Phase 3b TRITON trial, the first randomised controlled study evaluating the efficacy and safety of initial triple oral combination therapy (UPTRAVI [selexipag], OPSUMIT [macitentan] and tadalafil) compared to initial double oral combination therapy (placebo, macitentan and tadalafil) in newly diagnosed, treatment-nave patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Study results were featured as an oral presentation as part of the digital European Society of Cardiology Congress held 29 August 1 September 2020. Continue reading →

Fewer than one in five patients enrolled in the COAPT trial of the MitraClip (Abbott) were super-responders to their assigned therapies, with more seen in the percutaneous intervention group than in the medical control group. But understanding at the outset which patients will benefit most from the clip remains murky. Writing in an early-online publication of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Paul A. Continue reading →

(UPDATED) Investigators who led a widely publicized cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) study showing that COVID-19 may cause lingering cardiac damage have responded to questions raised on social media challenging their findings. Eike Nagel, MD, and Valentina Puntmann, MD, PhD (both University Hospital Frankfurt, Germany), issued a correction this week in JAMA Cardiology, stating they reviewed and reanalyzed their data after TCTMD alerted to them Twitter discussions about their work Continue reading →

When COVID hit London in mid-March 2020, Dr Ramzi Khamis found himself almost ovenight co-leading Imperial College's cardiology response to the pandemic. He had to find solutions to enable his teams to cope with adapting the service to deal with an influx of patients sick with the little-understood virus, whilst also maintaining the usual business of seeing people with heart attacks. Continue reading →

Among patients with acute coronary syndromes, malnutrition seems common and is tied to increases in mortality and cardiovascular events, according to a new Spanish analysis. To identify malnourished patients is a chance for clinical cardiologists to improve the prognosis of patients with acute coronary syndrome, lead author Sergio Raposeiras Roubn, MD, PhD (Hospital lvaro Cunqueiro, Pontevedra, Spain), told TCTMD in an email. This is very important in cardiac rehabilitation units; those units should include nutritional intervention programs Continue reading →

Dr. Rafael Rivero, M.D., Global Head of Medical Affairs at MSI, said: "The importance ofMyoStraincannotbe understated because of the test's immense clinical value and ability to quantify intramyocardial dysfunction across 48 segments of the heart. In a six-heartbeat MRI scan, MyoStrain arms physicians with novel clinical information about a patient's heart health." Dr Continue reading →

Levels of a set of circulating biomarkers indicative of extracellular matrix homeostasis were found to be elevated in patients with heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (EF; HFpEF), and were reduced after treatment with sacubitril/valsartan, according to results of a multicenter, double-blind, randomized clinical trial published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. In this study, data from the Prospective Comparison of ARNI With ARB Global Outcomes in HF With Preserved Ejection Fraction trial, in which patients from North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America with chronic HF with HFpEF were randomly assigned 1:1 to receive sacubitril/valsartan or valsartan alone, were analyzed. Eligible participants (n=1135) were > 50 years, had signs and symptoms of HF, New York Heart Association functional classes II to IV, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) 45%, and structural heart disease Continue reading →

Source: ThinkStock August 11, 2020 -Small hospitals across the country are turning to telehealth to expand their treatment options and give patients access to specialists they might otherwise have to travel long distances to see. These services not only improve care for patients, but help the hospital to keep that care in the community. Such is the case with the Beauregard Health System, an acute care hospital in rural DeRidder, LA Continue reading →