Authors

High clopidogrel maintenance dosage in patients with diabetes mellitus and coronary artery disease

Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus have decreased platelet inhibition and decreased responsiveness to standard doses of clopidogrel compared with patients without diabetes. In this pilot study, we showed that increasing the maintenance dose of clopidogrel to 150 mg leads to enhanced platelet inhibition compared with the standard dose of 75 mg in patients with type 2 diabetes with suboptimal responsiveness. The clinical implications of these findings are unknown, however, and need to be evaluated in large-scale clinical trials.

The Perfect Storm: When Parkinson Patients Enter the Hospital

Differing therapies, inaccurate regimens, missed diagnoses—issues can compound quickly for patients with PD seeking care for something else.

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction in women

Heart failure in the United States affects 4.9 million people, of whom 2.5 million are women.

Acute aortic occlusion: Common presentation of an uncommon catastrophe

There is scant systematic literature available on acute aortic occlusion. A review of 46 cases in a single center found 2 primary causes, including embolism (65%) or thrombosis (35%).1 Smoking and diabetes were found to be the risk factors for thrombotic occlusion and pre-existing cardiac disease and female gender risk factors for embolism. Acute aortic occlusion due to embolization of a large thrombus from left atrial appendage occurred in a patient with atrial fibrillation at our institution recently (Radha Sharma,MD, personal communication, February 2008). Case reports have described embolization of atrial myxoma to the abdominal aorta resulting in aortoiliac occlusion.2,3

The Cure for Burnout? Reconnecting with Our Patients

Physicians are primarily delivering disease management, rather than healing and care. The current system is a placing a strain on the practice.

Happiness, Elusive, but Somewhere Out There

AdAlta CEO Sam Cobb Discusses IPF Therapy Development

Rare Disease Report sat down with AdAlta CEO Sam Cobb to discuss the impetus for the redesign of AD-214, and what it means for those in the idopathic pulmonary fibrosis.

Making the Grade: How Doctor-grading Websites Can Impact Your Practice, and What You Can Do to Lessen the Blow

Should your practice have a policy for responding to negative comments about the quality of care and service delivered by you and your staff left anonymously on an online physician-grading website?

Maintaining sinus rhythm after cardioversion of atrial fibrillation

We performed a meta-analysis of the effect of long-term treatment with antiarrhythmic drugs for the prevention of recurrent atrial fibrillation after conversion to sinus rhythm. We found that several class IA, IC, and III drugs are effective in maintaining sinus rhythm, but virtually all of them increase adverse effects, including proarrhythmia. In addition, class IA drugs are associated with increased mortality. The final risk-benefit ratio of antiarrhythmic drugs on clinically relevant outcomes is still unclear.

Elevated Testosterone Levels Predict cad in Older Women

Promising Results for First Pharmacologic Treatment for Celiac Disease

Patients with celiac disease treated with larazotide acetate experienced improvements in GI symptoms and non-GI symptoms such as headache and fatigue, as well as significant reductions in the number of symptomatic days.

There's Something about Magic

My life as medicine man and magician

Take Charge of Your Retirement Rollover

Mitral Valve Clip Effective Alternative to Open-Chest Surgery

A novel mitral valve clip was proven to be as safe and effective as open-chest surgery in selected patients with mitral valve regurgitation.

Pharmacotherapy for chronic cardiovascular disease in women

Cardiovascular drugs affect women differently than they do men because of differences in pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and physiology. Results of recent studies on the use of cardiovascular agents in women are presented, with an emphasis on the need to include an appropriate proportion of women in future studies, to adapt the dosage to the weight of the patient, and to incorporate hormonal aspects into the analysis.