The news wires for atrial fibrillation were abuzz this afternoon. The vigor and speed with which health news travels is striking. Since 2.6 million Americans live with AF, my guess is that many are looking at the release of the Medtronic-sponsored TTOP-AF trial with anticipation. Here is a link to the press release. The trial […]
Category: Atrial fibrillation
There’s very little in Cardiology that isn’t rapidly changing these days. Treating AF exemplifies this trend. At least my approach to AF has evolved steeply over the past year. Amazingly so, really. For instance, I choose blood-thinners in a different way. Call it a more European perspective. My threshold to discuss and recommend AF ablation […]
You have probably read that experience makes for better doctors. And of course this would be true–in the obvious ways, like with the hand-eye coordination required to do complex procedures, or more importantly, with the judgment of when to do them. There’s no news here: everyone knows you want a doctor that’s been out of […]
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Multaq (and me) in the WSJ
How should one feel about being quoted in the Wall Street Journal? Nervous. That’s how. This morning’s piece, written by award-winning medical journalist, Tom Burton centered around new reviews of the heart rythm drug, Multaq. Louisville cardiologist John Mandrola said, “I’m surprised that the drug has persisted. I don’t know any of my colleagues who […]
Did you know September is AFib awareness month? As a believer in education as the first, and best treatment of AF, I think it’s great to enhance the public knowledge of this highly-misunderstood disease. By all means… Tell people about AF’s risks: stroke and heart failure. Tell them that their fatigue, poor exercise tolerance and […]
The most famous medical blogger once direct-messaged me this advice: “One thing I have learned from blogging is to never engage criticism.†I’m going to break this advice. The robustness of the response over the Ironman piece shocked me. As a bike racer, a cardiologist, and a happily married man, I have grown thick skin. […]
You can mark August 2011 as an amazing month for news in the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF). In this post, I will attempt to share what I have learned about the two new blood-thinning drugs, apixaban and rivaroxaban–both Factor Xa inhibitors. (Disclaimer: this is not a book chapter, rather a blog post from a […]
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Breaking news in AF treatment
Good Sunday morning friends. Yesterday brought the news of yet another important breakthrough in the treatment of AF. Apixaban, another non-warfarin blood-thinner, the third all told, was found to be both superior to warfarin in preventing strokes, associated with less bleeding and had no significant side effects. There’s a lot of data to digest. I’m […]
Doctors that treat atrial fibrillation (AF) are getting close to celebrating the one-year anniversary of having a substitute for warfarin. As an early adopter of the novel new blood-thinner, I would like to share some (almost) one year-old observations on dabigatran (Pradaxa). First, the science behind dabigatran is stellar. The landmark RE-LY trial studied 18,000 […]
One of the coolest things about keeping a medical blog is interacting with people. It’s immensely gratifying to hear from folks that stumble upon my site. Take this example: While cooling down after tonight’s ride, a cycling friend and ER doc mentioned that my website turned up on his Google search of the new blood-thinner […]
I recently came across a very important blog post on the use of the novel new blood-thinner, dabigatran (Pradaxa). Fellow Kentucky cardiologist, and frequent TheHeart.org contributor, Dr. Melissa Walton-Shirley wrote this very detailed case presentation involving a cantankerous non-compliant rural patient with AF (atrial fibrillation) that sustained a stroke while “taking†dabigatran. Dr. Walton-Shirley details […]