Articles Tagged With:
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Psychiatric Medications and Long QT Syndrome: A Safe Combination?
A retrospective study of patients with electrocardiogram long QT interval syndrome and psychiatric disease suggests that with proper pharmacologic treatment and counseling, the patients can be treated safely with psychiatric drugs known to increase the QT interval.
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Preventing Ventricular Arrhythmias with Potassium
A Danish randomized trial of augmenting serum potassium by diet or medications compared to usual care in patients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) has shown that modest increases in potassium resulted in a reduction in the composite endpoint of appropriate ICD therapy or hospitalizations for arrhythmias or heart failure, or death.
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Is Anticoagulation Necessary in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension?
A large French national registry observational study of the use of anticoagulants in patients with pulmonary artery hypertension of diverse etiologies enrolled over 11 years, and a meta-analysis of this study and four other national registry studies, showed that there was no association between anticoagulant use and survival.
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Efficacy of Adding Aspirin to OACs for CAD Patients
A randomized, placebo-controlled trial of adding aspirin to oral anticoagulant therapy in patients with chronic coronary artery disease at high risk of atherothrombotic complications and major bleeding was stopped early because aspirin increased the risk of all-cause mortality. In addition, aspirin was associated with an increase in atherothrombotic complications and major bleeding.
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Mechanical Aspiration for RSIE: Finally, Some Data to Inform a Growing Practice
In this registry of patients undergoing mechanical aspiration for right-sided infective endocarditis, technical success rates were high, with a modest but significant rate of procedural complications. Further research with randomized trials will be needed to better define proper patient selection.
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The Proton Pump Inhibitor Use and Hypertension Link in Menopausal Women
In a large study, long-term use of proton pump inhibitors in menopausal women was associated with an increased risk of developing hypertension.
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Comparison of the Mini and Standard Copper IUD
This Phase III randomized clinical trial demonstrated a three-year cumulative pregnancy rate of 4.8% (95% confidence interval, 2.75 to 6.86) for the NTCu380 mini intrauterine device (IUD), with similar discontinuation rates between the mini copper IUD and the TCu380A standard copper IUD (51.3% vs. 57.3%, P = 0.07), but fewer discontinuations for bleeding and pain for the mini copper IUD (14.5% vs. 27.3%, P < 0.001).
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Antenatal Corticosteroids for the Periviable Fetus at 22 Weeks of Gestation
The 2021 American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists/Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine practice advisory significantly increased the use of antenatal corticosteroids at 22 weeks of gestation in U.S. hospitals planning neonatal resuscitation, highlighting both the powerful influence of clinical guidelines on practice patterns and the persistence of disparities driven by sociodemographic factors.
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What Is the Risk of CT Exposure Before Conception?
In this retrospective cohort study among 5,142,339 pregnancies in Ontario, Canada, exposure to preconception computed tomography (CT) was weakly associated with spontaneous pregnancy loss (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.08; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07 to 1.08 for one CT scan; aHR, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.12 to 1.16 for two CT scans; and aHR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.16 to 1.21 for three or more CT scans). For the 3,451,968 live births, there was a similar weak association with congenital anomalies (aHR, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.05 to 1.08 for one CT scan; aHR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.09 to 1.14 for two CT scans; and aHR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.11 to 1.18 for three or more CT scans).
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Wellens’ Syndrome or Not?
Today’s patient is a middle-aged man who presented to the emergency department (ED) with a history of chest pain with exertion during the past two weeks. His chest pain had been increasing and was at its most severe level the day he presented to the ED. The initial serum troponin level in the ED was more than 10,000 ng/L. Does the clinical scenario suggest Wellens’ syndrome?