Greatly improved new statin guidelines – with one exception
The Twitterverse blew up yesterday when they released the new lipid guidelines. I read many articles and finally think I am understanding the big progress these guidelines achieve.
My favorite review is on Medscape (free registration required) – New Cholesterol Guidelines Abandon LDL Targets. I titled this post the statin guidelines, because these guidelines no longer focus on LDL levels, but rather the use of statins. We are no longer asked to treat to goal, rather to put appropriate patients on a statin.
The four major primary- and secondary-prevention patient groups who should be treated with statins were identi...
Source: DB's Medical Rants - November 13, 2013 Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: rcentor Tags: Medical Rants Source Type: blogs
Low Rate Of Problems With Statins In Study Of Quarter Million Patients
A very large analysis of previously published studies finds that statins are generally safe and well tolerated, but helps confirm previous links to a small increased risk for diabetes and elevation of liver enzymes. Some statins were better tolerated than other statins and lower-dose statins were better tolerated than high dose statins. In a paper published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, Huseyin Naci and colleagues report their findings from a systematic review of clinical trials with statins for both primary and secondary prevention. The data from 55 placebo controlled trials and 80 trials inclu...
Source: CardioBrief - July 9, 2013 Category: Cardiology Authors: Larry Husten Tags: Prevention, Epidemiology & Outcomes atorvastatin Pravastatin primary prevention Rosuvastatin secondary prevention Simvastatin Source Type: blogs
May Diabetes-Related News Snippets
Conclusion: "Compared with pravastatin, treatment with higher potency statins, especially atorvastatin and simvastatin, might be associated with an increased risk of new onset diabetes."22% higher risk with Lipitor (atorvastatin) and 18 percent higher with Crestor (rosuvastatin).In mainstream press coverage, Drug company shills,, a.k.a. well known cardiologists, bend over backward to ignore this latest confirmation of a phenomenon that has been public knowledge for more than a year. The reason that statins cause diabetes may have to do with the fact that they impair the operation mitochondria--the part of the ce...
Source: Diabetes Update - June 3, 2013 Category: Diabetes Authors: Jenny Source Type: blogs
Drug News in Brief
Short takes on matters various.
Taking Aim at Pot—Researchers have recently made clinical efforts to test three drugs that might help during marijuana withdrawal to keep pot abstainers on the straight and narrow. Researchers at Columbia University, led by Margaret Haney, have been testing a synthetic THC compound called nabilone. The drug is designed to address sleep and appetite problems during withdrawal. Whether it is any better tolerated by users than Marinol, Uncle Sam’s widely unpopular version of synthetic THC, remains to be seen. This approach can be viewed rather like methadone or buprenorphine substitu...
Source: Addiction Inbox - March 20, 2013 Category: Addiction Authors: Dirk Hanson Source Type: blogs
Unreported Drug Side Effects Discovered by Analysis of Google Big Data
Discussion about Big Data; Relevance for Healthcare). The key aspect of such Google research is understanding how to interpret search engine queries. Here's a graph of the search term gonorrhea from Google Trends with volume peaking in October, 2010. A correlation with relevant news headlines is also provided. (Source: Lab Soft News)
Source: Lab Soft News - March 14, 2013 Category: Pathologists Authors: Bruce Friedman Tags: Electronic Medical Record Healthcare Information Technology Medical Consumerism Medical Research Pharmaceutical Industry Source Type: blogs
Bad Pharma And The Statin Wars - Forbes
It’s been amusing to watch former Pfizer executive John LaMattina try to pick apart Ben Goldacre’s new book, Bad Pharma, a powerful indictment of the industry in which LaMattina used to work. This is not the occasion to get into the details of this battle, but as an aside let me just say that I would advise any representatives of the pharmaceutical industry to think very carefully before choosing to take on Goldacre. John LaMattina What I want to focus on here is an assertion, accepted by both Goldacre and LaMattina, that is simply mistaken. LaMattina’s latest post is a r...
Source: PharmaGossip - March 2, 2013 Category: Pharma Commentators Authors: insider Source Type: blogs
Yes, Statins do everything – even lower BP
What could be crazy enough to end a 4 month hibernation of CTE?
Archives Int Med 4/08 – The UCSD Statin study yielded further evidence that statin treatment reduces blood pressure (although not by much) The RCT enrolled over 900 subjects without known CVD or diabetes. The idea was to independently assess the effect on BP. There was no inclusion / exclusion criteria regarding baseline BP. Subjects were randomized to pravastatin, simvastatin, or placebo.
Treatment with a statin resulted in about a 2-2.5 point drop in SBP and DBP. The treatment was stopped at 6 months, and the blood pressures returned to baseline by mo...
Source: Consider The Evidence: Med/Peds Journal Roundup - April 17, 2008 Category: Internists and Doctors of Medicine Authors: medblog Tags: archives of internal medicine hypertension Source Type: blogs
