Oct 4th, 2022 - This discussion was recorded on August 31, 2022. This transcript has been edited for clarity. Editor's Note: All views expressed are those of the authors and do not represent the opinions of any affiliates. Medscape reached out to Anthem with an opportunity to respond to claims made regarding payment denials mentioned in this interview. Since the alleged claims are currently the subject of liti...

Oct 4th, 2022 - To be cost-effective compared with metformin for initial therapy for type 2 diabetes, prices for a sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitor or a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist would have to fall by at least 70% and at least 90%, respectively, according to estimates. The study, modeled on US patients, by Jin G. Choi, MD, and colleagues, was published online October 3 in the Anna...

Oct 4th, 2022 - Every Sunday from November to April Dennis Thomas starts his day by hitting the beach at Coney Island for a dip in the frigid Atlantic Ocean — no matter how low the mercury plummets. Thomas, president of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club, says these winter swims offer more than just a bracing rush of adrenaline. He believes they're the reason that, at age 67, he is fiddle-fit physically, tack-sh...

Oct 3rd, 2022 - The association between increasing age and risk for type 1 myocardial infarction (MI) in patients with HIV is more significant among those with vs without hepatitis C virus (HCV) coinfection, suggesting that HCV status should be considered when evaluating cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in this patient population. These study findings were published in The Journal of the American Heart Associ...

Sep 30th, 2022 - Left atrial (LA) reservoir strain is an independent predictor of incident atrial fibrillation (AF) after an ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI), according to a study in the International Journal of Cardiology. Investigators sought to determine the prognostic value of LA strain measured via 2-dimensional speckle tracking echoca...

Sep 30th, 2022 - Gender-based violence should be considered a risk factor for developing cardiovascular diseases such as broken heart syndrome, according to Eunice Tavarez, MD, an internist cardiologist from the Dominican Republic. She affirms that long-term patient follow-up should also be carried out because the heart problems can reoccur. During the ACC Latin America 2022 Together With CardioAcademic confere...

Sep 30th, 2022 - Shortening the duration of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) and continuing with a P2Y12 inhibitor alone after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was associated with a similar rate of ischemic events but with less bleeding than prolonged DAPT after 3 years of follow-up in the SMART-CHOICE trial. "The current results of extended follow-up from the SMART-CHOICE trial support evidence of an a...

Sep 29th, 2022 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- SEPTEMBER 29, 2022, Golden State Medical Supply, Incorporated (GSMS, Inc.) - Camarillo, CA has initiated a voluntary recall of the products listed in the table below because a report was received that a bottle containing Clopidogrel 75mg Tablets produced with lot# GS046745 was mislabeled as Atenolol 25mg Tablets. This voluntary recall only affects products with lot# GS046...

Sep 29th, 2022 - Reduced risk for heart failure (HF) is associated with device-measured physical activity, especially moderate-intensity physical activity, according to study findings published in Circulation. Researchers sought to evaluate the dose-response relationship between device-measured physical activity and HF stratified by physical activity intensity. They conducted a prospective cohort study that inc...

Sep 29th, 2022 - Factors associated with an increased risk for long COVID include older age, a higher comorbidity burden, disease severity at the time of diagnosis, and unvaccinated status at initial onset of infection. These study findings were published in JAMA Network Open. Using data from the Veterans Affairs Corporate Data Warehouse and the COVID-19 Shared Data Resource, researchers conducted a retrospecti...

Sep 29th, 2022 - A growing number of Americans with cardiovascular disease (CVD) have limited or uncertain access to food, results of a new study suggest. An analysis of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) representing more than 300 million American adults found that, overall, 38.1% of people with cardiovascular disease were food insecure in 2017-2019. Twenty years earlier, t...

Sep 28th, 2022 - Two small studies offer mixed results using vastly different approaches to modify severely calcified lesions before percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). In the open-label COPS trial, use of a cutting balloon inflated at high pressure resulted in greater minimal stent area (MSA) and more symmetric stent expansion at the calcium site than standard noncompliant balloon angioplasty. Although a...

Sep 27th, 2022 - A significant percentage of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) met the criteria for sleep disorders, including obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), restless legs syndrome (RLS), and short sleep, according to results of a study published in Arthritis Care & Research (Hoboken). In addition, RA disease activity and pain were also found to be linked to the sleep conditions. Although poor sleep is of...

Sep 27th, 2022 - Key clinical point: The incidence of acute high-risk chest pain (AHRCP) diseases during pregnancy and puerperium has increased consistently over a decade, with advanced maternal age being a significant risk factor. Major finding: The incidence of AHRCP diseases during pregnancy and puerperium increased from 79.

Sep 27th, 2022 - This transcript has been edited for clarity. I'm pleased to give an update on the UK Prospective Diabetes Study (UKPDS). This is the longest-running follow-up of a randomized controlled trial in type 2 diabetes. Those familiar with it may remember that the 20-year trial randomized patients to intensive blood glucose control with sulfonylurea/insulin, or in overweight patients, to metformin, com...

Sep 26th, 2022 - This transcript has been edited for clarity. John M. Mandrola, MD: Hi, everyone. This is John Mandrola from theheart.org | Medscape Cardiology. I'm here in Barcelona, Spain, at the European Society of Cardiology meeting. I'm really happy to have Professor John Eikelboom from Hamilton and McMasters University. Dr Eikelboom is an expert in anticoagulation, and we're going to talk about this new a...

Sep 26th, 2022 - In a new analysis of the previously published FAME 3 trial, which compared fractional flow reserve–guided percutaneous coronary interventions to coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) in patients with three-vessel disease, post-PCI FFR was shown to predict both target vessel failure (TVF) and risk of cardiac events. "We found that the post-PCI FFR had prognostic value both for the vessel and for...

Sep 26th, 2022 - A look at the top cardiovascular disease (CVD) diagnoses in US emergency departments (EDs) suggests that many heart-related emergencies are due to poorly controlled high blood pressure. In a study of more than 20 million ED visits, about one third of CVD-related ED visits in the United States were for hypertension-related conditions. Overall, 13% of ED visits, representing more than 2.7 million...

Sep 23rd, 2022 - The debris-catching cerebral embolic protection (CEP) device should reduce stroke. It actually stops large debris from entering the brain's circulation after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR). We know this because we can see the debris that would have infarcted brain tissue. A neutral observer might argue that there is no need to study this device against no protection. TAVR cannot ...

Sep 23rd, 2022 - The scene might go like this: Through the course of treating a patient, casual chitchat leads to the realization that you and the patient share a love of tennis and have similar skill levels. Soon you’re playing regularly, enjoying both the game and the camaraderie. Before long, you’re more than doctor-patient. You’re friends. This scene is not all that uncommon, but it does present dilemmas. M...