Lowe Syndrome Association | Strategic Alliance Partners

Recalls on Diovan (valsartan) began last July when the FDA detected trace amounts of a probable carcinogen in certain lots of the blood pressure drug.

Not sure what’s been recalled, withdrawn from the market, or had safety updates? Catch up on the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA's) recalls and safety news from this past week.

The increase in opioid prescribing for non-cancer pain has drawn attention to the corresponding increase in unintentional overdose deaths.

The combination of nebivolol/valsartan (Byvalson) lowers blood pressure better than either drug by themselves.

The anticonvulsant drug phenytoin may protect neural tissue in patients with optic neuritis, a common symptom of multiple sclerosis.

Researchers identify several independent risk factors for the development of severe and/or symptomatic hyponatremia in patients on oxcarbazepine therapy.

Meta-analysis of clinical trial data on the use of antidepressants and anticonvulsants for the treatment of painful diabetic neuropathy indicates gabapentin is the most efficacious agent for this condition, while the side effects associated with amitriptyline make it the least tolerable treatment option evaluated in the study.

With most medical schools devoting only a few curriculum hours to pain management training, many physicians begin their medical career underprepared to meet the needs of patients suffering with chronic pain. Here, Barry Cole, MD, identifies several key concepts that would help improve pain care in the US if only more physicians would learn about them sooner.

Researchers have found that inserting intra-aortic balloon pumps before angioplasty in patients with AMI does not reduce heart muscle damage.

As more angiotensin receptor blockers come off patent, it will be interesting to see how manufacturers, payers, and physicians react.

PSVT ablation is effective in about 90% of cases where an aberrant connection is located, and is as invasive as a routine cardiac catheterization.

A 48-year-old man with a history of type 2 diabetes was referred to our outpatient clinic for preoperative evaluation before undergoing intrabdominal surgery. He reported recently aggravated chest discomfort at rest.

Patients with new-onset diabetes mellitus in the VALUE (Valsartan Antihypertensive Long-term Use Evaluation) trial had an increased incidence of atrial fibrillation compared with patients without diabetes. Clustering of risk factors or the presence of dysglycemia may make the heart more susceptible to arrhythmias.

The incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF), which is the most frequently encountered sustained cardiac arrhythmia, is increasing in the United States.

The recent Management of Atherothrombosis with Clopidogrel in High-risk Patients Trial showed that adding acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) to clopidogrel in high-risk patients with recent ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack is associated with a favorable but nonstatistically significant trend toward fewer vascular events. However, the risk of life-threatening bleeding is increased by the addition of aspirin to clopidogrel. These results do not support the routine use of aspirin in addition to clopidogrel in the patient population that was studied in MATCH.

Anderson and Solomon (page 17) elegantly elucidate the patterns of sudden death after myocardial infarction (MI) in their analysis of the Valsartan in Acute Myocardial Infarction Trial (VALIANT) database.

A 67-year-old man with positive results on a stress myocardial perfusion test was found to have isolated anomalous origin of the left anterior descending coronary artery from a separate coronary ostium of the right sinus of Valsalva. This anomalous artery was not stenotic and coursed over the anterior free wall of the right ventricle, in front of the pulmonary artery. It did not appear to have an intra-arterial or intramyocardial course.