Heart Rhythm Medicine, Health, Cycling, Fitness.
The ultimate goal in medicine: protect the patient from stroke. Even a heart doctor has to admit the dominance of the human brain. Always think about preventing stroke. It’s one of the worst outcomes that can happen to a person. Life as a ‘normal’ human requires a healthy brain. A stroke irreversibly kills off part [...]
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As most of you know, I also write a column (Trials and Fibrillations) over at the online Cardiology news site, theHeart.org. My most recent article highlights what I thought were the top news stories in electrophysiology in 2012. There were many. Gosh were there ever. I broke a major rule of writing online articles: It [...]
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Yesterday afternoon, the FDA finally approved apixaban (Eliquis) for the prevention of stroke in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation. I use the words ‘finally approved’ because the markedly positive ARISTOTLE trial was published 15 months ago in the New England Journal of Medicine. The long delay was mysterious. On paper, apixaban looks to be the [...]
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Let’s talk about the new anticoagulants. Two recent studies involving dabigatran (Pradaxa) have shed new light on an important topic for patients with atrial fibrillation: the risk of bleeding versus the risk of stroke. Dabigatran and rivaroxaban (and soon, apixaban) have been approved for the prevention of stroke in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF). [...]
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There was good news today in the atrial fibrillation world. Though no surprise to heart rhythm doctors, an FDA investigation reveals no evidence that new cases of bleeding are any higher with dabigatran (Pradaxa) than with warfarin. The full statement from the FDA is here. The assessment was undertaken because after approval of the novel [...]
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