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Most of us like our news (medical or otherwise) pre-digested into understandable chunks for consumption. This need for this is inevitable because we expect to…
CVCT Forum 2020: An Interview with John Teerlink about Omecamtiv
What’s unique about omecamtiv? Darrel Francis speaks to GALACTIC-HF PI, John Teerlink about that dirty word in heart failure… “inotrope”. The new language is myotropes,…
CVCT Forum 2020: An Interview with Paul Armstrong about Vericiguat
Darrel Francis speaks to Paul Armstrong, PI of the VICTORIA trial, about the mechanism of new heart failure drug, Vericiguat, and the trial’s unusual power calculation: “The trial was deliberately overpowered on the primary endpoint”.
Charlie and the Medicine Factory (Do we really need to understand mechanisms?)
One of my favorite books growing up was “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. I revelled in the comeuppance meted out to the likes of Augustus…
CVCT Forum Teaser 2020: SGLT2 inhibitor trials in CKD
SGLT2 inhibitors are probably the hottest new drug on the scene in cardiology this year. They were bandied about for lowering glucose in diabetes but…
CVCT Forum 2020 Teaser: Darrel Francis interview with Faiez Zannad on Meta-Analysis Interpretation
Darrel Francis speaks to Faiez Zannad about his meta-analysis of SGLT2 inhibitors for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction published inThe Lancet. This interview takes you through the key components of the meta-analysis: Forest plots, what to make of the heterogeneity of effect, and subgroup analyses.
Under-Representation of Women in Heart Failure Trial Leadership
Women have been under-represented as professionals in cardiology and as researchers. In a systematic review of randomized clinical trials published in high impact journals, we…
New drugs for Heart Failure: “My cup runneth over”
The therapy of patients with Heart Failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) has evolved over the past several decades. Beta blockers; ACEIs, ARBs or sacubutril/valsartan; along with a MRA; a loop diuretic; and hydralazine/ISDN (in African Americans) form the basis of current guideline recommended therapy. Despite their use, even when appropriately dosed at target levels, there remains a considerable incidence of hospitalizations for Heart Failure (HHF) and cardiovascular mortality (CVM) as well as compromised quality of life and increased health care costs.
Darrel Francis Interview with Milton Packer : the EMPEROR-Reduced Trial, the Patients and the Endpoints
How do triallists decide the two key features of a trial: which patients and what endpoints? And what is the future for SGLT2 inhibitors in…
A COVID-19 Cardiac MRI Study: What Went Wrong?
We still don’t know what COVID-19 is doing to the heart or how we should be investigating it and treating it. Last month JAMA Cardiology published a German cohort study of 100 patients recently recovered from COVID-19.
A number of striking problems with the study were noted on Twitter.