Heart Failure

While TORe has been a significant development in the treatment of overweight and obese patients who have undergone gastric bypass surgery there are more procedures on the horizon that could provide even greater benefits in the future.

Even more so than gastric bypass surgery, the work of the patient determines how effective TORe can be in helping them keep from re-gaining excess weight. With diet, exercise, and working with their healthcare professionals the results can be positive for everyone involved.

While gastric bypass has provided benefits for millions of patients it has not been without its share of complications and difficulties after the procedure. Over the past few years work has been done to find ways to help patients after undergoing the original operation.

Across the country millions of people have undergone gastric bypass surgery in an effort to lose weight and improve their overall health. For those patients who have seen their results diminish a relatively new procedure could get them back on the road to a healthy lifestyle.

Dietary sodium restriction is frequently recommended as a means to manage hypertension, congestive heart failure and cardiovascular disease. However, with the growing focus on patient-centered outcomes rather than disease-centered outcomes, the importance of sodium restriction becomes less clear.

In this edition of Clinical Forum, we asked three Cardiology Review editorial board members to comment on multivessel versus culprit-vessel-only PCI in patients with acute myocardial infarction, considering perspectives from the PRAMI and CvLPRIT trials.

Cardiology Review editor-in-chief Debabrata Mukherjee, MD, reviews the contents of this month's issue.

It is well established that among patients with the clinical syndrome of heart failure, approximately half have preserved systolic function, known commonly as heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Although originally considered to be a syndrome that pathophysiologically involves diastolic dysfunction, ongoing investigation suggests that although diastolic abnormalities may be present in many patients, other aspects of pathophysiology likely also contribute to symptoms. This study examined the association of beta-blockers with mortality in patients with HFpEF.

The FDA approved label warning changes for two Gilead Sciences hepatitis C drugs after one person died and nine others had serious reactions when the drugs were coadministered with amiodarone, a drug used to treat irregular heartbeat.

Pressure on US hospitals to cut costs is fueling a new trend, sending patients home as little as 2 days after primary percutaneous coronary intervention after a serious heart attack. Most US patients go home in 4 to 5 days. A new study finds the short stay is usually safe and the research will likely add momentum to the trend.

Analysis indicates that updates to atrial fibrillation (AF) treatment guidelines will encourage American doctors to prescribe oral anticoagulants to almost 1 million more patients.