5 New Oral Anticoagulants for Atrial Fibrillation

5 New Oral Anticoagulants for Atrial Fibrillation

When trying to decide which therapy for nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) is optimal for patients, many factors should be considered, including compliance, ability to perform daily activities of living, and nutrition... read more

Conservative oxygen treatment linked to lower ICU mortality

Conservative oxygen treatment linked to lower ICU mortality

A conservative protocol for oxygen therapy results in lower intensive care unit (ICU) mortality compared to conventional care.... read more

New HIV treatment appears to have fully erased the virus from a patient's blood

New HIV treatment appears to have fully erased the virus from a patient's blood

A pioneering new trial offers new hope in the fight against HIV after a patient treated with a new therapy appears to have no trace of the virus in their blood.... read more

Use of Evidence-Based Medical Therapy Steadily Improving in Acute MI Patients Postdischarge

Use of Evidence-Based Medical Therapy Steadily Improving in Acute MI Patients Postdischarge

Over a recent 10-year period, there has been an improvement in the prescription of evidence-based medical therapy for patients who survive and are discharged from hospital after an MI, a new analysis shows.... read more

Association of Sodium Selenite and Procalcitonin-Guided Therapy With Mortality

Association of Sodium Selenite and Procalcitonin-Guided Therapy With Mortality

This randomized clinical trial evaluates the use of high-dose sodium selenite, with or without use of a procalcitonin algorithm to guide therapy, and its association with mortality in patients with severe sepsis.... read more

Gene therapy for LPLD patients linked to lower frequency and severity of pancreatitis

Gene therapy for LPLD patients linked to lower frequency and severity of pancreatitis

Up to 6 years after receiving a single treatment with the gene therapy product lipoprotein lipase (LPL), patients with the debilitating genetic disease LPL deficiency (LPLD) had about 50% fewer episodes of pancreatitis than... read more

ICDs appear not to improve overall survival in non-ischemic systolic HF

ICDs appear not to improve overall survival in non-ischemic systolic HF

This paper reports the findings of the DANISH study, a multicenter, unblinded, randomized, controlled trial to compare outcomes in patients with non-ischemic systolic heart failure who received cardiac resynchronization therapy... read more

Time to treatment with endovascular thrombectomy and outcomes from ischemic stroke

Time to treatment with endovascular thrombectomy and outcomes from ischemic stroke

Compared to patients treated with medical therapy alone, patients with an ischemic stroke undergoing endovascular thrombectomy combined with medical therapy had lower rates of disability 3 months after their stroke.... read more

Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome

Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome

Alcohol withdrawal syndrome (AWS) is present in 20% of all hospital admissions and contributes to at least 30% of critical care admissions.1 Patients who develop AWS require longer hospitalizations and have extensive medical... read more

Catheter ablation more effective than antiarrythmic escalation

Catheter ablation more effective than antiarrythmic escalation

Catheter ablation was found to be more effective than escalated antiarrhythmic drug (AAD) therapy at treating patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy and an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) who had ventricular tachycardia... read more

Decompressive craniectomy linked with decreased mortality in TBI

Decompressive craniectomy linked with decreased mortality in TBI

Patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and refractory intracranial hypertension following 2 stages of standard therapy who were then randomized to receive decompressive craniectomy had lower rates of mortality and higher... read more

Review: Stem Cell Tx for Heart Failure Not Ready Yet

Review: Stem Cell Tx for Heart Failure Not Ready Yet

Heterogeneity in methods for trials of stem cell therapies for heart failure are a big reason for the inconsistent results seen to date, a review article suggested.... read more

Earlier Renal Replacement Therapy for AKI? Not So Fast, Says Dr Berns

Earlier Renal Replacement Therapy for AKI? Not So Fast, Says Dr Berns

The AKIKI study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine; ELAIN was published in JAMA. If you have not read them, you should, if for no other reason than that your colleagues are likely to ask about them.... read more

Is Timing Really Everything With RRT?

Is Timing Really Everything With RRT?

For years we have been told that early interventions result in better patient outcomes. Early cardiac catheterization results in more preserved myocardial function.... read more