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Statins are drugs used to lower cholesterol. Your body needs some cholesterol to work properly. But if you have too much in your blood, it can stick to the walls of your arteries, narrowing or even blocking them.

Study explains clinical, public health challenges for use of statins in treatment of heart attacks

Charles H. Hennekens, M.D., Dr.P.H., the first Sir Richard Doll professor and senior academic advisor to the dean, and Ira J. Gelb, M.D., emeritus professor of cardiology and senior advisor to the dean for pre-baccalaureate programs at FAU's Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, have published an invited editorial in the current issue of Cardiology about the clinical and public health challenges to increase utilization of statins in the treatment and prevention of heart attacks and strokes.

17 Feb 2014

Medicinewise News' edition examines latest evidence for determining absolute CVD risk, treatment options

NPS MedicineWise is reminding health professionals that while various media reports have recently linked statins to a variety of adverse events and questioned their efficacy, these drugs remain one of the most effective strategies for reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

14 Feb 2014

Clot-busting tPA therapy for ischemic stroke patients can avoid lengthy, restrictive monitoring in ICU

A Johns Hopkins study of patients with ischemic stroke suggests that many of those who receive prompt hospital treatment with "clot-busting" tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) therapy can avoid lengthy, restrictive monitoring in an intensive care unit (ICU).

13 Feb 2014

Microbiologists find way to use statins to fight Hantavirus

wo Perelman School of Medicine microbiologists may have found a way to use statins, the well-known blockbuster cholesterol-lowering drugs, to fight the hantavirus, a mysterious and lethal microorganism that appeared suddenly in the US southwest over 20 years ago.

12 Feb 2014

Scientists showcase HDL nanotherapy that may provide solution to repeat heart attacks

Up to 30 percent of heart attack patients suffer a new heart attack because cardiologists are unable to control inflammation inside heart arteries - the process that leads to clots rupturing and causing myocardial infarction or stroke.

22 Jan 2014

New technology may provide solution to high risk of repeat heart attacks, say scientists

Up to 30 percent of heart attack patients suffer a new heart attack because cardiologists are unable to control inflammation inside heart arteries — the process that leads to clots rupturing and causing myocardial infarction or stroke.

20 Jan 2014

Continued use of statins may help prevent delirium in critically ill patients

Continued use of statins may help prevent delirium in critically ill patients who received statins before hospital admission, according to a new study of 470 intensive care patients in the UK.

17 Jan 2014

Cardiovascular conditions may be overlooked in bipolar disorder

Cardiovascular comorbidities may be going under-recognized and undertreated in patients with bipolar disorder, say UK researchers.

10 Jan 2014

Crowdsourcing fungal metabolites with antitumor activity: an interview with Dr. Robert H. Cichewicz, University of Oklahoma

Fungi have played a large role in the development of many important drugs that are in wide use today. The most well-known of these are the penicillins.

7 Jan 2014

Study: Cholesterol levels linked to early signs of Alzheimer's disease in the brain

High levels of "good" cholesterol and low levels of "bad" cholesterol are correlated with lower levels of the amyloid plaque deposition in the brain that is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, in a pattern that mirrors the relationship between good and bad cholesterol in cardiovascular disease, UC Davis researchers have found.

30 Dec 2013

CAC screening plays more prominent role in determining risk for heart attack and stroke

A new study shows that coronary artery calcium (CAC) screening, an assessment tool that is not currently recommended for people considered at low risk, should play a more prominent role in helping determine a person’s risk for heart attack and heart disease-related death, as well as the need for angioplasty or bypass surgery.

26 Dec 2013

Study shows CAC screening plays prominent role in determining person's risk for heart attack and stoke

A new study shows that coronary artery calcium (CAC) screening, an assessment tool that is not currently recommended for people considered at low risk, should play a more prominent role in helping determine a person's risk for heart attack and heart disease-related death, as well as the need for angioplasty or bypass surgery.

23 Dec 2013

Amgen reports that Phase 3 DESCARTES study for high cholesterol meets primary endpoint

Amgen today announced that the Phase 3 DESCARTES (Durable Effect of PCSK9 Antibody CompARed wiTh PlacEbo Study) study evaluating the long-term 52-week safety and efficacy of evolocumab for the treatment of high cholesterol met its primary endpoint of percent reduction from baseline in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) at week 52.

20 Dec 2013

Possible mechanism behind elevated risk of cardiovascular disease discovered in HIV-infected women

A Massachusetts General Hospital research team has discovered a possible mechanism behind the elevated risk of cardiovascular disease in women infected with HIV, a risk even higher than that of HIV-infected men. In the Dec. 1 issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases the investigators report finding that HIV-infected women had a greater prevalence of the type of coronary artery plaque most vulnerable to rupture than did uninfected women.

14 Dec 2013

Angioplasty may not provide additional benefits compared to drug therapy for patients with stable CAD

For patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) who are not experiencing a heart attack and an abnormal stress test, treatment of their narrowed arteries by the common procedure of angioplasty may not provide additional benefits compared to drug therapy alone.

9 Dec 2013

NPS MedicineWise publishes set of FAQs on statins and heart disease

With the statins group of cholesterol-lowering medicines continuing to make headlines this week, independent organisation NPS MedicineWise has reviewed the latest clinical evidence and published a set of Frequently Asked Questions on its website addressing people’s key concerns.

6 Dec 2013

Genetics and cardiovascular drugs: an interview with Nancy Lurker, CEO of PDI and Paul Kinnon, CEO of Transgenomic, Inc.

People inherit different versions of any particular gene, and some genes affect how patients process and metabolize medicines. This especially holds true for people with cardiovascular (CV) disease. They may be fast, slow or non-metabolizers and might also react badly (with serious adverse events) to certain drug therapies or not at all.

27 Nov 2013

Drug interactions impact use of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs

A new study has found that many people who stopped taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs were also taking an average of three other drugs that interfered with the normal metabolism of the statins.

27 Nov 2013

Study finds patients treated with varespladib drug more likely to experience cardiovascular events

Patients with acute coronary syndrome who were treated with the experimental drug varespladib were more likely to experience additional cardiovascular events - including sudden death, heart attack and stroke - than those treated with placebo, according to research from the Cleveland Clinic Coordinating Center for Clinical Research (C5Research).

19 Nov 2013

Viewpoints: Obamacare has resisted death throes before; website success stories from 3 governors; health law taking a toll on choice of doctors in Medicare Advantage

The first time Obamacare seemed finished, doomed, doornail-dead, the voters of Massachusetts played the would-be executioner. In January 2010, they sent a pickup-driving Republican to the Senate to fill Ted Kennedy's seat, apparently depriving the health care bill of its crucial 60th vote and sending Democrats scrambling for a Plan B. ... the deeper force at work, the reason that these near-death experiences keep happening, isn't a website or a broken presidential promise. It's a problem inherent to contemporary liberalism, which is that liberals' proudest achievement, the modern welfare state, tends to resist, corrupt and baffle their efforts at comprehensive reform (Ross Douthat, 11/16).

19 Nov 2013

Statin News and Research

Further Reading

Study explains clinical, public health challenges for use of statins in treatment of heart attacks

Medicinewise News' edition examines latest evidence for determining absolute CVD risk, treatment options

Clot-busting tPA therapy for ischemic stroke patients can avoid lengthy, restrictive monitoring in ICU

Microbiologists find way to use statins to fight Hantavirus

Scientists showcase HDL nanotherapy that may provide solution to repeat heart attacks

New technology may provide solution to high risk of repeat heart attacks, say scientists

Continued use of statins may help prevent delirium in critically ill patients

Cardiovascular conditions may be overlooked in bipolar disorder

Crowdsourcing fungal metabolites with antitumor activity: an interview with Dr. Robert H. Cichewicz, University of Oklahoma

Study: Cholesterol levels linked to early signs of Alzheimer's disease in the brain

CAC screening plays more prominent role in determining risk for heart attack and stroke

Study shows CAC screening plays prominent role in determining person's risk for heart attack and stoke

Amgen reports that Phase 3 DESCARTES study for high cholesterol meets primary endpoint

Possible mechanism behind elevated risk of cardiovascular disease discovered in HIV-infected women

Angioplasty may not provide additional benefits compared to drug therapy for patients with stable CAD

NPS MedicineWise publishes set of FAQs on statins and heart disease

Genetics and cardiovascular drugs: an interview with Nancy Lurker, CEO of PDI and Paul Kinnon, CEO of Transgenomic, Inc.

Drug interactions impact use of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs

Study finds patients treated with varespladib drug more likely to experience cardiovascular events

Viewpoints: Obamacare has resisted death throes before; website success stories from 3 governors; health law taking a toll on choice of doctors in Medicare Advantage

Leveraging the power of automation to boost research

Automating research - solutions and best practices

How can microdialysis benefit drug development

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