Opinion | ‘If We Have a Thermonuclear War, All I Need Is a Scalpel’: What We Heard This Week
“If we have a thermonuclear war, all I need is a scalpel.” — Stavropoula Tjoumakaris, MD, of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, during an FDA advisory committee on critical medical devices during public health emergencies. “Microbes can turn sugar into alcohol in the same way that grape juice turns into wine.” — Aaron Schwartz, MD, […]
Statins Reach More Patients With Pharmacist’s Orders
PHILADELPHIA — One way of looping remote pharmacists into the primary care clinician workflow successfully boosted statin initiation in the cluster-randomized SUPER LIPID trial. Researchers devised an intervention of asynchronous automated orders, a centralized approach using pharmacists to discuss and prescribe statins without a doctor’s visit. This led to most orders cosigned (73.7%) and a […]
DOAC Cuts Stroke Risk From Subclinical Afib
PHILADELPHIA — For patients with subclinical atrial fibrillation (Afib, AF) detected by their pacemaker or defibrillator, direct oral anticoagulation brought their already low stroke risk even lower — but at a cost in bleeding events, the ARTESiA trial showed. Apixaban (Eliquis) treatment cut risk of stroke or systemic embolism 37% compared with low-dose aspirin over […]
No Aspirin Needed After LVAD, ARIES-HM3 Trial Says
PHILADELPHIA — Dropping aspirin from the antithrombotic regimen after HeartMate 3 left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation appeared safer than the usual combination approach in the ARIES-HM3 trial. Atop warfarin or other vitamin K antagonist therapy, placebo was noninferior to low-dose aspirin for the primary composite endpoint of survival free of stroke, pump thrombosis, major […]
Kidney Week Roundup: Cell Therapy Cuts Immunosuppressive Drug Use Post-Transplant
PHILADELPHIA — Some of the latest research in the field of nephrology presented at the American Society of Nephrology’s Kidney Week included sparsentan in focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, combination treatment with an SGLT2 inhibitor and an endothelin A receptor antagonist, and a novel aldosterone synthase inhibitor in chronic kidney disease. Below are a few more highlights. […]
Novel Aldosterone Synthase Inhibitor Cuts Albuminuria in Phase II Trial
PHILADELPHIA — An oral investigational aldosterone synthase inhibitor (ASI) cut albuminuria by nearly 40% in people in chronic kidney disease (CKD) in a phase II trial. The 10-mg dose of ASI BI 690517 yielded an average 37.4% (95% CI -52.2 to -18.2%) greater reduction in urine albumin-creatinine ratio (UACR) from baseline to week 14 compared […]
Sparsentan Bests Irbesartan for Preserving Kidney Function in IgA Nephropathy
PHILADELPHIA — Sparsentan (Filspari) outperformed irbesartan in patients with IgA nephropathy over the 2-year phase III PROTECT trial. Over a 110-week treatment period, those on sparsentan had an average 42.8% (95% CI -49.8 to -35.0) reduction in urine protein-to-creatinine ratio compared with a 4.4% (95% CI −15.8 to 8.7%) reduction with irbesartan (geometric least-squares mean […]
Have a Story About Private Equity Ownership? The FTC Wants to Hear From You
PHILADELPHIA — The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is interested in hearing from physicians about their experiences with private equity involvement in healthcare as well as other marketplace issues, FTC chair Lina Khan said Wednesday at the annual meeting of the American College of Emergency Physicians. “It’s difficult to overstate how valuable your stories, your experiences […]
Menopausal Women With Obesity Endure Worse Symptoms, Less HT Relief
PHILADELPHIA — Women with obesity may experience worse menopausal symptoms and see less relief from hormone therapy (HT), according to a pilot study. When compared with women without obesity, those with a BMI of 30 or greater were significantly more likely to report menopause-related vasomotor symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats (74% vs 45%, […]
Study Pinpoints Growing Use of Cannabis to Manage Menopause Symptoms
PHILADELPHIA — One in 10 midlife women said they used cannabis in the past month, some of which was to manage menopausal symptoms, a researcher reported here. In a nationally representative sample of U.S. women, ages 45 to 64, 42% said they had ever used cannabis either recreationally or for medical purposes in their lifetime, […]