Let’s talk about the newest cholesterol myth gone busted. I can hardly write; I’m so giddy. That’s what happens to me when simplicity and obviousness triumphs over complicated testing that adds nothing to (or even clouds) the big picture. They come to my office with pages of data dissecting the particle sizes and sub-fractions of […]
Year: 2012
Categories
Impressive writing
There’s a lot of impressive physician writers out there. I’d like to point you to one that really speaks to me. His name is Jordan Grumet. Dr. G seems wise beyond his years. His most recent essay, Have you compromised yourself? strikes my relevant neurons. We, doctors included, amble through this world accompanied by our […]
The safety of AF ablation depends greatly on the adequacy of blood thinning. AF ablation is no cardioversion. The choices of blood thinning regimens include either warfarin or dabigatran (Pradaxa)–and soon perhaps rivaroxaban or apixaban. The advantages of warfarin include the ability to confirm the level of thinness and its long-acting properties lessen after-procedure gaps […]
What could competitive athletes teach a group of heart rhythm specialists? Cyclists, runners and yes, even triathletes, know something that we wizards too often forget. I’ll tell you what it is in good time. Keep reading. I just returned from a giant gathering of heart rhythm doctors. It was, as all national meetings are, an […]
Who knew that a having a nuclear stress test might put you at risk for suspicion of terrorism? No, I am not making this up. A famous medical blogger, known as the Skeptical Scalpel, cited this bizarre news report of a CT firefighter who was stopped by the state police. The unsuspecting public servant was […]
Head over to theHeart.org to read my review of the recently released RAAFT 2 trial–a randomized clinical trial of Radiofrequency Ablation vs. Antiarrhythmic Drugs as First-Line Treatment of Symptomatic AF. The study adds significantly to the growing knowledge of how best to treat AF. JMM
Categories
Are doctors good at anything else?
Naysayers you all. Calling us blawgers…or worse. Nothing productive will come of all that time you spend in grandiose self-promotion. Wait, isn’t all self-promotion inherently grandiose? But now, after 622 posts, 2052 comments and 1818 tweets, I finally have something to show for it. Did you know the press get free coffee and food? And […]
Categories
CW: What makes us happy?
This will have to be a short one tonight. I’m getting ready to unleash a fury of words and opinions on matters of the heart rhythm. A respite now. I came across this highly tweeted piece on how much salary we require to be happy. It turns out that 50,000$ per year acts as a […]
Hi All, Tomorrow morning, I will be heading to Boston for the annual Heart Rhythm Society scientific sessions. As I did this January during the Boston AF symposium, I plan to keep you informed. In fact, in my new capacity as a member of theHeart.org team, I will be live tweeting and blogging the meeting. […]
I’m sorry. The news was really bad today. I wished it were better. (Well, maybe I don’t.) The easy-answer people were denied again. Punched in the gut, were they. The notion that a pill can do what exercise does remains a fantasy. Another member of the group of drugs that boost HDL, called CETP inhibitors, […]
It’s entitled: More on ECG screening to prevent sudden death in the young: On risk, the Italian experience and notes from the real world. Here’s the lead in… Earlier this week, I wrote about one of my favorite topics in medicine: the ECG. This 12-pronged view of cardiac vectors catapulted my interest in the human […]