A study shows that middle-aged men with gout and elevated uric acid levels have an increased risk for cardiovascular disease mortality. Medscape Medical News
A new Europe-wide survey has found wide differences among physician specialties and countries in terms of how they diagnose and treat heart failure. The results reinforce the need for better education of all those involved in HF and indicate how important a multidisciplinary approach is, say the researchers. Heartwire
Guidelines on the use of devices to regulate heart rhythm and rate have placed unprecedented emphasis on the need for optimal medical therapy before device therapy is considered. Medscape Medical News
Investigators say a new computed tomography–derived calcium coverage score provides information about cardiovascular events beyond that provided by commonly used measures of coronary calcium burden. Medscape Medical News
Patients who received statins before cardiac surgery obtained reductions in short-term mortality, stroke, and atrial fibrillation, according to the largest meta-analysis to date on the subject. Medscape Medical News
But only one of these deaths was due to psychiatric disorders (suicide), which is the major concern with this drug. Sanofi-Aventis has stressed that no causal link between any of the deaths and rimonabant has been established. Heartwire
The first trial of the new direct renin inhibitor, aliskiren, in patients with diabetic nephropathy shows that it reduces proteinuria when added to conventional treatment. But observers say this is merely a surrogate-end-point trial and definitive guidance on how to use this drug in such patients will come only from an ongoing large outcomes study, ALTITUDE. Heartwire
Mutations in a gene responsible for encoding a protein involved in reverse cholesterol transport result in significantly lower HDL-cholesterol levels and impaired cholesterol efflux but are not associated with an increased risk of ischemic heart disease, a new study has shown. Heartwire
