Medical Mystery Monday: Why is Heart Disease In Decline? Part One

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

"Something strange is going on in medicine," writes the New York Times's Gina Kolata - major diseases are are on the wane, and in some cases, it's a mystery as to why.

A decline in mortality from colon cancer is "especially perplexing," writes Kolata - a decline by nearly 50 percent since its peak in the 1980s has left researchers searching for an answer, since more screening couldn't possibly indicate such a large decline.

Heart disease mortality still declining, but slowing

Despite still being the number one cause of death in the world and the United States, death rates from cardiovascular disease and stroke have been steadily and significantly declining since the 1970s.

From 2000 to 2010, age-adjusted mortality decreased 30 percent for heart disease and 36 percent for stoke. And with cancer mortality declining by only 13 percent over that time period, it looked as if heart disease might lose its status as leading cause of death in the United States for the first time since 1910.

Not so fast.

Continue reading Medical Mystery Monday: Why is Heart Disease In Decline? Part One

“Absorb” Approved; Bioresorbable, Drug-coated Stent to Roll Out “in a Phased Way”

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

Yesterday, the Food and Drug Administration approved Abbott's Absorb stent, the first fully dissolving stent to be approved by the FDA.

A 10-person FDA advisory panel, including Dr. George Vetrovec of Virginia Commonwealth University, voted unanimously in March to affirm that the stent's benefits and efficacy outweigh its risks. The same panel voted 9-1 in favor of its safety profile, despite the risk of blood clots for some patients.

"This is presumably a better technology going forward - at least that's the theory - but it will take years to prove," said Vetrovec to the Associated Press.

FDA approves Absorb with advisory panel warning

Continue reading “Absorb” Approved; Bioresorbable, Drug-coated Stent to Roll Out “in a Phased Way”

Has ACVP solved a critical issue facing European medical conferences?

Posted on by Sean McElgunn

Thanks to the recent adoption of a new code of ethical conduct by MedTech Europe, a group of industry associations doing business in Europe, the future of European cardiology conferences may soon be in jeopardy.

The reason? More barriers to attendance.

It’s not that these conferences suffer from a lack of interested medical professionals. It’s just that, while many MDs would very much like to attend, registering for a cardiology conference in Europe is not cheap—on the order of thousands of dollars per event.

Everybody, the attendees, the presenters, with the exception of a very limited number of senior professors, has to pay, and it is understood that the physicians will attend more than a few over the course of a year.

And, in the time honored tradition of using off-site attractions as a lure for good registration numbers, the meetings are held in “not cheap” locations across the Continent, further ballooning the cost of attendance.

Continue reading Has ACVP solved a critical issue facing European medical conferences?

Is heart failure over-diagnosed? and other stories

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

Is heart failure over-diagnosed?

A common problem in elderly men, obstructive uropathy, can look a lot like heart failure.

When pulmonary edema is present, heart failure is often the "scapegoat" says Melissa Walton-Shirley, MD in a commentary on Medscape. Approaching heart failure with "an air of skepticism" might help.

I've seen a handful of obstructive uropathy cases masquerading as heart failure in elderly men in recent years. I shudder to think how many times I've missed it. I suspect that it's not just men who suffer. Some of our female patients with "diastolic dysfunction" and overflow incontinence seem to suffer from backpressure that finds its way into the pulmonary vasculature.

Melissa Walton-Shirley, MD
Read more on Medscape.

NYU Langone tests new transcatheter device.

Continue reading Is heart failure over-diagnosed? and other stories