Clinical

This channel newsfeed includes clinical content on treating patients or the clinical implications in a variety of cardiac subspecialties and disease states. The channel includes news on cardiac surgery, interventional cardiologyheart failure, electrophysiologyhypertension, structural heart disease, use of pharmaceuticals, and COVID-19.   

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Paclitaxel-coated devices found safe in new study—but the debate isn’t over

Paclitaxel-coated devices were found safe for the treatment of femoropopliteal artery revascularization in a JAMA Cardiology study published Feb. 12—the latest installment in a continuing debate over whether drug-coated stents and balloons raise long-term mortality risk in patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD).

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Left ventricular function helps predict post-op mortality in HF patients

Heart failure (HF)—both symptomatic and asymptomatic—is associated with an up to 10 percent increased risk of 90-day postoperative mortality in patients undergoing noncardiac surgery, according to a study published Feb. 12 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Swedish study spotlights the high eventual price of early physical unfitness

A study of health outcomes among more than 1 million men who enlisted in the Swedish Armed Forces decades ago has thrown into sharp relief the connection between poor health habits in adolescence and chronic disabilities later on in life.

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Fake physician ‘diagnosed’ diabetes by asking patients to hold metal rod

A 73-year-old Florida man posing as a fake doctor was arrested after he diagnosed an undercover cop with diabetes and high cholesterol and offered to “cure” the man with a $2,000 autologous blood transfusion, the Miami Herald reported Feb. 13.

Clopidogrel loading offers little added benefit for stenosis patients pre-TAVI

P2Y12 inhibitor initiation with clopidogrel using a loading dose (LD) is no more effective in reducing ischemic events or adverse outcomes in transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) patients than initiating the therapy without a loading dose, according to research published in the American Journal of Cardiology Feb. 10.

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Telerehab as effective as clinical therapy for restoring functionality after stroke

Home-based telerehabilitation is just as effective as traditional rehab for restoring arm function in stroke survivors, according to late-breaking science presented at this year’s American Stroke Association International Stroke Conference in Honolulu.

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Under-table shields reduce radiation to operators during PCI, angiography

Placing homemade shields under the angiographic table during percutaneous coronary procedures cut operators’ exposure to radiation at the pelvic level by a median of 72 percent, according to a single-center study in Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions.

His-optimized CRT improves electrical resynchronization in advanced HF patients

His-optimized cardiac resynchronization therapy successfully narrowed QRS duration, improved left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction and heightened functionality in 27 patients with advanced heart failure (HF), according to a study published in Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology.