heart attacks
Dialysis firms defend anemia drug use along ethnic lines
Citing data suggesting that African-American patients need more of the drug, the kidney dialysis industry has begun to argue that limits on its use of Amgen's Epogen could harm patients. According to... Read more...
NYC public hospitals disclose infection, mortality rates
New York City's 11 public hospitals will soon begin publicizing infection and death rates, spurred partly by the growing national concern about hospital-acquired conditions. In so doing, they're... Read more...
Case study: Program treats heart attacks quicker
An Indianapolis, IN area hospital has been getting great results from a new protocol it initiated to treat heart attacks more quickly. The hospital's Emergency Heart Attack Response Team has been... Read more...
Heart disease controls often skipped in diabetes care
While patients well understand high blood glucose can lead to ugly complications like blindness and kidney failure, few recognize that keeping cholesterol and blood pressure low are equally critical... Read more...
Trend: Dentists doing primary care
In recent times, dentists have begun sliding into a primary care role. Not only are they handling oral health issues, they're also screening for diabetes, heart disease and cancer, and also are... Read more...
Despite safety issues, Vioxx still in demand
For every regulatory action, it seems that there must be a backlash. This time, it's a move by consumers to bring back the controversial drug, Vioxx. Patients who once depended on the drug for... Read more...
Hospital heart attack deaths plummet
Thanks to improved treatments, including more-frequent angioplasties and effective drug use, the number of hospitalized heart attack victims who die or experience severe heart failure has dropped almost in half over the last six years. This is the conclusion drawn by an international group of researchers, who looked at heart attack care in 14 countries. The study, which is being published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that compared with six years ago, …
... Read more...ALSO NOTED: Mass General gets $35M; Breast cancer, hormones linked?; and much more...
> Massachusetts General Hospital has received a $35 million donation for its burn unit and emergency department, courtesy of media bigshot Sumner Redstone. Article
> New federal statistics indicate that when menopausal women began cutting back on hormone use in 2002, breast cancer cases fell substantially, suggesting a link between hormones therapy …
... Read more...Insurers may cut stent payouts
A new study suggesting that stents don't help non-emergency cardiac patients more than drugs could soon change how insurers reimburse for such treatments, observers say. The recent New England Journal of Medicine study, which looked at 2,287 non-emergency patients, found that angioplasty and stenting didn't save lives or prevent heart attacks, though it did reduce chest pain. Right now, roughly 50 to 80 percent of angioplasties are performed on non-emergency patients, with …
... Read more...Study challenges angioplasty benefits
Despite widespread beliefs to the contrary, drugs may be just as effective as angioplasties when it comes to treating non-emergency heart conditions, according to a new study. The study, which was presented at the American Cardiology Conference, concluded that while angioplasties are still indicated for heart patients in crisis, this procedure neither saved lives nor prevented heart attacks in non-emergency heart patients. What's more, the study suggests that angioplasty only provides a …
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