CT angiography and stress tests can predict heart attacks

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

Invasive angiography unnecessary?

Noninvasive CT angiography and CT myocardial stress perfusion imaging can adequately predict heart attacks and major adverse cardiovascular events, according to a study published yesterday in Radiology—no invasive coronary angiography (ICA) required.

Invasive coronary angiography (ICA), along with stress tests and single photon emission tomography (SPECT) imaging, has long been the "gold standard" for making determinations of whether a lesion is hemodynamically significant and likely to result in major adverse cardiovascular events, reads a Radiological Society of North America press release.

But this "gold standard" has its drawbacks—in costs and risk.

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Two common ways you might misinterpret medical research

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

Sophisticated statistics in medical research can be hard to translate to layman's terms, and when they are, these common misinterpretations can be downright misleading.

1. Odds ratios don't express relative risk.

In 1999, media reports resulting from a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine wrongly suggested that black patients and women were 40 percent less likely than white patients and men, respectively, to undergo cardiac catheterization.

The study's authors had used odds ratios to describe the significance of their findings—a common practice among statistically sophisticated researchers—which showed that black patients and women were definitely less likely to be referred for invasive procedures than white patients and men, but not how much less likely.

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A revolution in chronic heart failure management and more in CV Directions Vol. 3, No. 1

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

This is the first and only FDA-approved heart failure monitoring solution proven to reduce heart failure hospital admissions when used by physicians to manage heart failure. And the reduction is significant— 28 percent within the first six months and 37 percent over 15 months demonstrated in a large randomized study...

Learn more about CardioMEMS, find strategies to improve case mix index, or build a learning community in your team through preceptorship—all inside the Alliance of Cardiovascular Professionals flagship, peer-reviewed publication, CV Directions.

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Future of cardiology: personalized care through genetics?

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

Genetic arrhythmia programs are paving new roads for personalized cardiac care—from preventing unnecessary cautionary testing or treatment to improving screening.

Melvin Scheinman, MD—the first person to perform catheter ablation for arrhythmia in a human patient, now chief of the Comprehensive Genetic Arrhythmia Program at the University of California, San Francisco—believes genetic testing will lead to the "ultimate form of personalized medicine," writes Gregory A. Freeman of HealthLeaders Magazine.

"If you examine the genetic background of a patient, you may be able to identify sensitivity to specific drugs, propensity for developing some very serious heart disorders, and at the same time rule out those same things for other people," said Scheinman to HealthLeaders.

"That is really what personalized medicine is all about—delivering the right care to the patient because you truly understand the patient and don't have to treat him or her as just a member of a group with certain statistical risks."

A proliferation of genetic arrhythmia programs "across the country" have been introducing new, measured responses to a sudden cardiac death in the family—preventive healthcare for some, but not all family members.

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