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General Cardiology General Medicine

The BVS Disappearing Stent: Promise, Hype and the Tension Between Progress and Safety

Medicine does not stand still. You want innovation; you want progress. But you also want safety. Millions of patients have coronary stents placed in the arteries supplying blood to the heart. It’s big business. Metal cages placed in the setting of a heart attack can be life saving. In other settings, however, the strongest quality […]

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Cycling Wed Exercise inflammation

Cycling Wed: I told you so…

Dear Endurance Athletes, More than a year ago, I suggested that Ironman-distance triathlons were not heart healthy. Little did I know that expressing the notion that chronically inflaming oneself might cause permanent heart damage would be so controversial. This post led to my first experience with ad hominem comments. Obviously, talking about the upper limit […]

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General Cardiology Healthy Living

Only one heart: Treatment of Coronary Artery Disease in the Real World

Tonight, I am going to stick up for my interventional cardiology friends. These are the good folks who respond immediately (and I mean immediately) when you have a heart attack. They open clogged arteries. Like Jack Nicholson said, “you want these guys on the wall.” Why do I feel the need to take up for […]