Cardiology

For patients needing to lose the most amount of weight for help with cardiovascular conditions or diabetes there are many ideas on how best to achieve their goals.

For chronic conditions like atrial fibrillation the needs of patients can change regularly. With doctors unable to answer all questions all the time patient organizations can help provide a peer to peer level of help.

Diabetics who need CABG surgery have better outcomes when surgeons perform total arterial revascularization.

When patients come to doctors with information about a given topic it is important for them to provide guidance not only on the information provided but also help them find results that will be of more use to their individual are.

It can be easy for patients to go online and get all the information they could ever want about just about any topic. However, finding information, and finding factual information are two very different issues.

It has been many years since Howard Schatz was a practicing physician and while he said the retina specialty has changed he has also seen the field of photography change as digital passes the age of film.

It was supposed to be just a one year sabbatical for Howard Schatz to take a break from his work as a retina specialist and enjoy what had become a growing hobby of photography. More than two decades later Schatz said he misses some parts of practice but is greatly enjoying what has become a second career.

“On the basis of evidence currently available, IL-1 RA is an attractive candidate drug for clinical trial.” Interleukin-1 is an anti-inflammatory protein typically used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

Improvements in PH at one-month post-TAVR are not sustained and are not linked to lower mortality.

A new matched cohort analysis contradicts several prior studies that conclude patients with psoriatic arthritis face an increased risk of cardiovascular comorbidity.

Among 968 patients, initial stability was no indicator of ongoing stability: only 34% of them remained in the therapeutic window at least 80% of the time.

Researchers theorize that the nutritional profile of nuts, along with the emerging evidence that nuts have a beneficial effect on the vascular system, may be the reason for the association.

As more is learned from the battlefield about limb salvage and prosthetics those lessons can be applied in civilian care. This is particularly true for conditions like peripheral artery disease.

If peripheral artery disease is not caught soon enough patients risk losing toes, feet, or legs to amputation. Going from the beginning of the treatment process through potential amputation is a delicate balancing act for doctors.

Diagnosing peripheral artery disease can be a simple process if doctors know what they are looking for and patients follow medical directions.

In addition to new medications there are new devices and procedures constantly being developed to help patients across a broad spectrum of conditions. Data from these trials can determine how helpful they are for patients and what their future usage will be.

A new analysis finds that patients taking warfarin for their atrial fibrillation are more likely to develop dementia than those taking the drug for treatment of other conditions.

There are many patients around the world suffering from various degrees of heart failure. With such potentially fatal consequences there has been a push to make the condition only treated by specialists.

As newer medications are developed for various conditions there can be a rush to prescribe them for patients. However, various factors including cost can make these prohibitive options for doctors and patients alike.

As transcatheter aortic valve replacement (or TAVR) becomes more common, more work is being done to help patients undergoing this procedure.

Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, who served as FDA Commissioner and CMS Administrator, will be the keynote speaker at the fall meeting of the ACO & Emerging Healthcare Delivery Coalition, presented by The American Journal of Managed Care. The meeting will be October 20-21, 2016, in Philadelphia.

Where NTProBNP falls short, hepatoma derived growth factor may more than succeed.

Psoriatic arthritis patients with carotid plaque have a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CV), but don’t always receive the proper preventative care to manage that risk.

Professor Aida Babaeva compared cardiovascular effects of immunotherapy plus standard treatments to those evident with the standard treatment alone, claiming the anticytokines doubled chances of reaching target blood pressure and more than halved risk of cardiovascular events.

The MD Magazine editors rounded up the 10 best stories from July – did you read them all?

Retrospective analysis of ablation outcomes before and after a medical center began using ultrasound to guide vascular access indicates that the technology significantly reduces complications.

While the influenza vaccine has endured its fair share of controversy, new research shed light on one of the flu shot’s added benefits: diabetes patients who get the vaccine may not suffer as many cardiovascular or respiratory problems.

A new meta-analysis of 102 randomized controlled diet trials found that consumption of polyunsaturated fat instead of carbohydrate or saturated fat reduces blood sugar levels and insulin resistance while also increasing the body’s ability to make insulin.

New research comparing patients and controls suggests that the body’s inflammatory response to psoriatic arthritis can lead to atherosclerosis and then to cardiovascular disease.

The field of population health may still be a relatively new venture but work is being done on a variety of levels to raise its profile and make it a larger contributor to the medical community as a whole.