TCTMD’s Top 10 Most Popular Stories for June 2016
Transcatheter aortic valves and lipid-lowering drugs were in the spotlight this month in the wake of the TVT and European Atherosclerosis Society meetings. We also saw reactions to the valve degeneration data that made waves at EuroPCR last month, new cardiovascular outcomes data for the diabetes drug liraglutide, PCI’s creep into unprotected left main disease, and physician responses to the Brexit vote.
Higher Scaffold Thrombosis Risk With Absorb BVS vs a Wide Range of Stents: Network Meta-Analysis
A large network meta-analysis comparing numerous stent types across different clinical trials has shown that treatment with an everolimus-eluting bioresorbable vascular scaffold is associated with a higher rate of scaffold thrombosis when compared with modern drug-eluting stents.
Clots Found in the Left Atrial Appendage: A Big Deal for TAVR?
It’s a clinical area with definitive answers: what should the next steps be when clinicians find a thrombus in the left atrial appendage during pre-TAVR evaluation? Experts are asking how common the finding is, whether it is a major contributor to stroke after the procedure, and how patient management should be modified to mitigate any risks.
When news broke last month at EuroPCR—via a late-breaking study presented in the Main Arena no less—that TAVR may have a durability problem, the initial response among attendees varied from skepticism about the findings to dread over what they might mean as the field progresses toward younger patients.
The 2013 US guidelines abandoned specific LDL cholesterol targets for patients with elevated levels in favor of a risk-based treatment approach, but Europeans have consistently held fast to treating to LDL goals, a position reiterated in the latest iteration of guidelines released by the European Society of Cardiology last month.
Recent controversy over statin intolerance and patient-reported muscle symptoms has researchers and clinicians struggling to make sense of why the vast literature supporting the safety and efficacy of these drugs increasingly does not seem to match up with real-world experience, notably as newer, more expensive drugs are entering the market.
Public concern about the safety of statins has led the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists’ Collaboration—the highly respected Oxford-based group that has been pooling randomized clinical trials of statins since 1995—to launch a new meta-analysis to assess the relative and absolute risk of adverse events associated with the lipid-lowering therapy.
A new study from one of the highest-volume PCI centers in the world suggests that PCI and bypass surgery produce similar clinical outcomes in patients with unprotected left main coronary artery disease of lower complexity, while showing that CABG maintains superiority in those with the most complex disease.
Cardiovascular disease prevention studies have historically sided unequivocally for or against the consumption of specific foods as being good or bad for the heart, a growing number of clinicians are calling for an approach that puts overall nutrition first, ahead of individual nutrients.
Liraglutide Leaps Over FDA Safety Hurdle, With Cardiovascular Mortality Reduction to Boot: LEADER
The addition of liraglutide to standard care in the treatment of patients with type 2 diabetes significantly reduced the risk of major cardiovascular events compared with placebo and standard care and this benefit was driven primarily by a reduction in the risk of cardiovascular mortality.
To Intervene or Not to Intervene When the TAVR Patient Has CAD: New Insights
Physicians and surgeons working in the TAVR space have, for years, debated the what to do—if anything—about severe coronary artery disease identified in the work-up of patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement. New data suggests that in contrast to the see-it, fix-it approach of the past, most concomitant coronary disease can be left untouched.
Bonus Feature:
Politicians are raging, currencies are tumbling, and, in the hallways of hospitals around the United Kingdom, cardiovascular specialists are reacting with disappointment and dismay to last week’s Brexit vote amid fears that changes will hit research funding, drug and device regulation, and pan-European collaboration.
Related Stories:
- TCTMD’s Top 10 Most Popular Stories for May 2016
- TCTMD’s Top 10 Most Popular Stories for April 2016
- TCTMD’s Top 10 Most Popular Stories for March 2016
Shelley Wood is the Editor-in-Chief of TCTMD and the Editorial Director at CRF. She did her undergraduate degree at McGill…
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