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September 2009 Archives: September 24, 2009 -- 11:45am PDT Prilosec and Plavix Together Again! This translates to an immediate and important message to patients: it is safe to take your Prilosec (and other similar drugs, such as Nexium, Prevacid and Protonix) with your Plavix! In fact, one of the reasons these two drugs have been prescribed together is that the PPIs can allay gastric problems and bleeding that may be a side effect of Plavix -- something which can have an important beneficial effect. The COGENT Study, subtitled "A Prospective, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Omeprazole in Patients Receiving Aspirin and Clopidogrel" was just presented by Dr. Deepak L. Bhatt at the TCT 2009 meeting in San Francisco and there will be a full report of that study later on Angioplasty.Org. As I have reported previously, there have been a number of conflicting studies of this issue, one of the most recent being a major report from Medco Health, which was presented at the recent SCAI annual meeting. But this was an observational study -- large populations of patients were looked at via prescription records, etc. However, lacking a definitive trial, this and other studies have caused patients to stop taking these drugs together. So the panel of physicians at this morning's press conference was quite vocal and joined in a strong opinion that true scientific evidence can only be discerned in a randomized clinical trial (RCT). As Dr. Christopher Cannon stated:
More to come.... « permalink » « send comment » « back to top »
September 22, 2009 -- 1:20pm PDT SRO at the Wrist Angioplasty Seminar -- Transradial is Hot
Organizers have told me that Thursday night's satellite symposium on Transradial already has 400 people signed up. Transradial (wrist) angioplasty is performed 40-50% or more around the world, but less than 5% in the U.S. From the interest being shown, especially at this year's TCT, this situation will soon change...and more quickly than expected, I predict. For more information about the transradial technique, check out the "Radial Access Center" on Angioplasty.Org.
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September 17, 2009 -- 2:00pm EDT Angioplasty Comes Home to San Francisco So next week thousands of interventional cardiologists will gather in San Francisco for the TCT, the largest meeting about angioplasty, stents and related procedures in the world. It's usually held in Washington, DC, but this year, it's SF. But what most of these cardiologists don't realize is that they will be coming home -- "home" being where the first coronary angioplasties were done. Many know that Andreas Gruentzig performed the first PTCA (coronary angioplasty done in a cath lab from a small incision in the leg artery) in Zurich in September of 1977. But earlier in the year he spent time with Dr. Richard Myler at St. Mary's Hospital in San Francisco, doing intraoperative angioplasties, performed during open heart bypass graft surgery, as a way of testing whether his novel idea might work. The story below, told by Richard Myler and Maria Schlumpf (Gruentzig's assistant) -- excerpted from my documentary, "PTCA: A History":
Richard Myler went on to perform the first PTCA in the U.S. in his cath lab in spring of 1978 -- on the same day, Simon Stertzer performed the procedure in his cath lab at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. The two later joined forces at the San Francisco Heart Institute where I had the honor of working with them to produce live demonstration courses. Back then a good audience was 500 cardiologists. Next week over 10,000 will come home to San Francisco! « permalink » « send comment » « back to top »
September 16, 2009 -- 6:25pm EDT Transradial Angioplasty at TCT « permalink » « send comment » « back to top »
September 15, 2009 -- 8:50pm EDT Drug-Eluting Stents: Looking Ahead The top cardiologists in the world will be presenting at the DES Summit, so anyone who sits through these sessions will come away with a rich understanding of the current status of these devices. We'll try to bring our readers the highlights of these sessions. But some of the major issues that will be aired are:
More next week.... |
Breaking
and big news for heart patients: 
So
I'm standing outside of Room 120 at the TCT in San Francisco, where "
(Late
Update at 2:25pm): So many people in the corridor that TCT opened
up another room to handle the overflow. No one could get through
the radial crowd to get into the other meetings. The original room
held 130 people. Estimated total attendence: 375.)
There's
a long list of opportunities to learn about the transradial technique
(catheter access via the wrist) at this year's TCT meeting in San
Francisco. I've 
As
a companion to my last post "