Articles related to Cardiology

Johns Hopkins assembled this list of not just foods that contribute to symptomatic chronic reflux, but also of foods that can reduce and prevent reflux. The former includes some obvious suspects such as pizza and potato chips, with high fiber foods, watery treats, and alkaline snacks making up the preventative, providing your patients with some tasty and sensible replacements.

Publication: JAMA Internal MedicineDesign: Retrospective cohort study of more than 83,000 propensity-scored matched pairs over a 12-year period.Results: Diabetes progression was significantly greater among diabetes patients using statins vs. those not using statins.

Publication: JAMADesign: Multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial performed in six hospices in the Netherlands of 162 patients with a life expectancy of three or more days. Administration of subcutaneous scopolamine butylbromide, 20 mg four times a day (n = 79) or placebo (n=78) in the 157 patients included in the primary analysis.Results: A death rattle occurred in 10 patients (13%) in the scopolamine group compared with 21 patients (27%) in the placebo group.

Our understanding of lipid pathology is shifting from what might be called the “LDL hypothesis” to the “atherogenic lipoprotein hypothesis.” LDL is just a surrogate of the actual process of lipoprotein interaction with the arterial wall. This shift in understanding is driving a host of budding therapies with novel approaches to targeting key atherogenesis players like lipoprotein(a) and triglycerides.

MDCalc.com offers this helpful tool, which calculates creatinine clearance (CrCl) according to the Cockcroft-Gault equation. The tool also allows height input, which analyzes BMI and provides a modified estimate and range.

Findings: Primary outcomes included AMI, HF, stroke, and CVEs; 51 secondary and safety outcomes included angioedema, cough, syncope, and electrolyte abnormalities. ACE inhibitors were associated with a significantly increased risk of four secondary and safety outcomes compared with ARBs.Design: Multinational cohort study; Patients: ~2.3M ACE, ~674K ARB