Cardiology
- Nonstatin therapy to reduce low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and improve cardiovascular outcomes
Several new nonstatin medications have been approved in recent years, with robust data from clinical trials supporting their use in atherosclerotic disease.
- Should my patients take their blood pressure medications in the evening to enhance cardiovascular benefit?
The focus should be to achieve blood pressure control and facilitate adherence, regardless of the timing of the medications.
- Should I start an SGLT-2 inhibitor in my patient with heart failure and chronic kidney disease?
These conditions often co-exist and can have complex interactions. The progression of kidney disease increases the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events.
- What is the most appropriate management of patients with acute decompensated heart failure who develop in-hospital hypotension?
The authors offer a tailored approach to risk-stratification in these patients that focuses on early recognition and management of symptomatic and clinically significant hypotension.
When should pharmacologic therapies be used for uremic pericarditis?If symptoms return or fail to improve with renal replacement therapy, drug therapy may be considered.
- To prophylax or not to prophylax for endocarditis: Still a question
Give prophylactic antibiotics before invasive dental procedures? On the surface, it may seem sensible. But we have more to learn about the successful clearance of bacteria from the bloodstream and why protective mechanisms occasionally fail.
- Getting to the root of the problem: Should my patient receive antibiotics before dental procedures to prevent infective endocarditis?
Individual risk depends on inherent patient and procedural risk factors. The authors offer practical points to aid decision-making.
- Evaluating troponin elevation in patients with chronic kidney disease and suspected acute coronary syndrome
The authors examine challenges in diagnosing acute coronary syndrome in patients with chronic kidney disease and provide a diagnostic algorithm to risk-stratify these patients.
- Unexplained pathology is not always autoimmune
Our success in understanding well-defined autoimmune diseases may make us too willing to attribute yet-unexplained conditions to autoimmunity simply because they share symptoms.
- How do I diagnose and treat my patient’s amiodarone-induced thyrotoxicosis?
Differentiating type 1 from type 2 amiodarone-induced thyrotoxicosis requires serologic testing, color Doppler ultrasonography, and radioisotope studies, and influences the choice of treatment.