Cardiology

Among a large sample of Veterans Affairs health care patients with peripheral artery disease, researchers found African Americans were 43% more likely to lose a limb to amputation--and it is likely not because of socioeconomic or behavioral factors.

In just over a year, Praluent has shown benefits in helping patients lower their cholesterol level. Despite the progress, there have also been some challenges.

One of the biggest challenges cardiologists face is treating patients with atrial fibrillation who are undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention, particularly when it comes to prescribing anticoagulants.

An analysis of thousands of patients in Germany taken from a national registry found interventional procedures more dangerous than surgery for severe symptomatic aortic valve stenosis. But there may have been confounding factors.

Systemic atherosclerosis causes peripheral artery disease, and these patients are at risk of cardiovascular death and stroke.

The mysterious sudden deaths of apparently healthy people, some young and engaged in sports, could be explained by mutations uncovered by a Canada research team.

There are a lot of tasty things that people with diabetes should not eat. But butter is not one of them, a study found.

Patients with a history of congestive heart failure were at increased risk of death during study trials of the drug, which is intended to fight recurring Clostridium difficile infections.

For many years, there were no good treatments for patients with pulmonary hypertension. That has changed recently, but there is still much more work to be done.

Unlike other conditions, pulmonary hypertension has symptoms that can be hard to identify in order to give the patients the right diagnosis. Misdiagnosis can not only worsen the symptoms, but also make treatment that much harder in the long run.

Phase 3 trials showed that empaglifloxin (Jardiance/Boehringer Ingelheim and Lilly) can reduce blood pressure in type 2 patients.

Acupuncture has been used and studied as an alternative pain management method, and although it appears to offer some benefit as a treatment for some forms of chronic pain, the evidence supporting its positive effect on other health conditions is uneven at best.

What do you suspect in a 45-year-old woman presenting with hypotension, bradycardia, and no significant medical history? ECG, here.

Three New York City area medical centers teamed up with the FDNY to launch the Mobile Stroke Treatment Unit (MSTU), an emergency transport vehicle specifically fitted to answer to patients who experiencing symptoms of strokes.

The mortality rate of AMD patients who received a bevacizumab injection 3 or 6 months after stroke was, in the study’s words, “worrying” compared to the rate of those who did not.

Controlling blood pressure may be more important in stroke prevention in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation than thought.

A new tool called X-map may be useful to supplement a standard computed tomography (CT) scan, but cannot replace it in diagnosing acute cerebral infarction.

At The North American Menopause Society 27th Annual meeting (NAMS), Holly Thomas, MD, MS, University of Pittsburgh, discussed her program of research mainly focuses on how sex changes for women as they move through midlife and into older age.

As Peter Schnatz, DO, Reading Health System, completes his term as President of NAMS, he reflected on the initial goals he'd had before assuming his position. His primary initiative was to bring the best care they could to menopausal women. Schnatz said they'd been working really hard on reopening the conversation of the use and utilization of hormonal therapy.

Peter Schnatz, DO, Reading Health System, current President of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS), spoke about his presidential address, which discussed breast arterial calcification (BAC) and the association with risk factors and atheroscleratic cardiovascular disease.

The aim of the present meta-analysis was “to estimate the yield of AF detection in patients with stroke due to small and large vessel disease and in stroke patients in whom stroke etiology was not defined,” say the researchers.

In a comparison of three non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs), apixaban, dabigatran, and rivaroxaban provided similar levels of stroke prevention, but apixaban was least associated with instances of major bleeding.

Even after the implantation of a left ventricular assist device there is no guarantee that patients will live much past the procedure. Planning for life after the implant can be as important as the time beforehand.

The extremely robust connection between AF and ischemic stroke is well-established, but the strength of the connection between AF and TIA had not been quantified to nearly the same degree.

While minimally invasive surgery is not a new concept the rapid advances in technology are helping to treat patients with more wide ranging conditions than ever before.