Latest Conference Articles

Countless debates have concluded the practice of pain management to be fragmented compared with other disciplines.

As with any new class of medications there are many questions that will need to be answered by and for healthcare professionals.

If the new class of drugs are as effective as they appear to be in early studies, it could have a drastic affect on how patients with cardiac issues are treated in the future.

One of the hot topics at the American College of Cardiology's annual meeting in San Diego was a new class of drugs being developed that could revolutionize the field of cardiac care.

About two-thirds of surgeons performing mitral valve surgery on patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) do ablation procedures at the same time. There are no official guidelines on when to do both. Trying to provide more information to guide such decisions, a US-Canada team randomized a group of these patients to either valve repair alone, or valve repair with ablation. The dual approach seems better.

Obesity is associated with atrial fibrillation (AF) but the heart condition can be reduced if these patients shed pounds.

The landscape of cardiac care has changed dramatically over the past few years and will continue to well into the future. What it will look like exactly remains to be determined based on a number of factors.

With a new class of drugs on the horizon questions remain about what PCSK9 inhibitors will mean to the future of cardiac care. Doctors are slowly learning the answers to those questions as possible approval draws closer.

Interventional cardiologists would do better to access heart arteries through a patient's arm than groin, a Dutch study found. Though the radial approach is technically more difficult, it is safer with a lower risk of severe bleeding.

As Doctors become more familiar with the new cholesterol guidelines it will be up to them to carry the message to the patients about ways they can improve their overall health.

Physicians may think patients over 80 are too old to benefit from agressive care to treat unstable angina or clogged arteries that caused a heart attack. Think again, a Norwegian researcher said at the American College of Cardiology meeting in San Diego, CA. These patients were 47% more likely to survive and healthier after invasive procedures than a group that got non-invasive care.

It has been many years since guidelines looking at cholesterol control were revised. Now the question is how to keep the new guidelines current even in the future.

Neurology and cardiology may not always work together to promote a person's overall health but some recent research has shown a closer connection between the two fields.

When he first discussed the idea of a vaccine to help fight heart disease P.K. Shah, MD, said he was laughed at for even considering the work. Several decades later the doctor is being lauded as his dream comes closer to becoming a reality.

Having worked at Cedars Sinai since 1982 Robert J. Siegel, MD, has seen a lot of changes in the medical profession and helped many doctors hone their craft as they begin their own work in the field.

The practice of using a syringe to suck a blood clot out of a coronary artery when a heart attack patient is undergoing angioplasty is common. But a study of 10,000 patients showed this manual thrombectomy procedure was associated with a higher rate of strokes in these patients.

With more complex patients anything surgeons can do to ensure success with surgery is a benefit. A recent study looked at how imaging can predict whether cardiac procedures will go well for them and their patients.

Despite advancements in stents, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) still prevails over balloon angioplasty and stents as the better treatment method for patients with multiple narrowed arteries in the heart.

Patient care continues to make dramatic changes including the way information is shared not only between doctors and patients, but also other doctors treating the same people. Technology making that happen continues to evolve as well.

In patients with heart failure and atrial fibrillation, those who had catheter ablation had better results than those who took the anti-arrhythmic medication amiodarone, reported researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

Coronary interventionalists face a wide variety of challenges on a daily basis and as patients post greater problems it is up to the doctors to come up with new ways to treat them.

When patients have chest pain, a CT scan can rule out disease or find it, the SCOT-HEART study found. That led to some patients learning they did not need treatment and others getting interventions that saved lives.

The use of targeted temperature management in patients who have suffered cardiac arrest remains a highly debated topic, especially in terms of whether there is an optimal target temperature for maximum benefit in reducing mortality and preserving cognitive function.

Paul Spittle, vice president, Cardiovascular and Respiratory, AstraZeneca US, discusses results from the PEGASUS trial and explains what they may mean for heart attack and stroke risk in patients who have suffered a myocardial infarction.

Sunil Agarwal, MD, from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, discussed the results of his research on the use of continuous cardiac monitoring to monitor elderly patients for atrial fibrillation and sub-clinical arrhythmia and help reduce their risk of stroke and other health complications.

Jason Katz, MD, MHS, from the University of North Carolina, discusses recent improvements in the field of coronary intensive care and identifies promising research that could lead to additional positive outcomes for patients.

Only 1 in 5 patients who might benefit from an implantable defibrillator after being hospitalized for heart failure gets counselling on that option, a Duke study found.

The TriGuard filter, an investigational device designed to protect the brain from hazardous debris released during transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and other procedures was found to improve in-hospital safety outcomes and cognitive scores at discharge.

A recent study comparing outcomes from ablation to treatment with medication showed the procedure provided greater benefit for atrial fibrillation patients with congestive heart failure.

A trial of an anti-clotting therapy that might have given physicians a way to turn on and turn off the blood's tendency to clot had to be halted because some patients had severe allergic reactions, researchers reported. Now they are focusing on why that happened in hopes of reviving the work.