The 18-month study, comparing pioglitazone with glimepiride, offers no insights into hard clinical end points but hints that the glitazone produced meaningful changes in the CV risk profile for diabetics with coronary artery disease. Heartwire
Some believe once-daily carvedilol for heart failure will improve compliance and therefore outcomes, compared with the twice-daily version; others wonder whether noninferiority is worth the extra cost. Heartwire
Dialysis patients who respond poorly to erythropoietin (EPO) have a mortality risk more than 50% greater than those who do not require EPO. Medscape Medical News
The relevance of hsCRP testing in the primary and secondary prevention settings are reviewed. What do the data say and do they support proposed guidelines for clinical use of hsCRP tests? Nature Clinical Practice Cardiovascular Medicine
Carotid bruits detected by auscultation might serve as markers for heart disease, rather than detect carotid lesions and the subsequent risk of stroke, and could help select patients who would benefit from an aggressive treatment strategy for cardiovascular risk, according to the results of new study. Heartwire
The etiology of arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy involves environmental factors and genetic modifiers. Recent genetic advances, hypothetical disease mechanisms, and the role of clinical genetic testing in diagnosis and prognosis are reviewed. Nature Clinical Practice Cardiovascular Medicine
