December 24th, 2011 by John Mandrola, M.D. in Opinion
1 Comment »
You may have heard that AF is a tough disease to understand. Questions far outnumber answers.
What causes AF?
Why do some not feel it at all, while others are incapacitated?
What’s the best treatment? Drugs? Ablation? Surgery? No treatment?
Should I take a blood thinner…and which one?
Where should one go for the best AF care?
This short email from a reader captures the essence of AF support group mayhem: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
September 1st, 2011 by DrWes in News
No Comments »
With the publication of “Apixaban versus Warfarin in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation” (the ARISTOTLE trial) in the New England Journal of Medicine, the third drug in a series of medications designed to attack thrombin in the clotting cascade. The study was announced with quite a fanfare in Europe as cardiologists, financial analysts and reporters gushed forth with ‘mega-blockbuster’ praise this past weekend.
And for good reason.
This is the first trial to conclude that Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
July 24th, 2011 by John Mandrola, M.D. in Opinion, Research
No Comments »
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 the very commonly done procedure of cardioversion (shock) for AF. As she clearly points out, the most important safety feature of shocking AF back to regular rhythm entails adequate blood thinning before and after the procedure. Thin blood prevents the possibility of clots dislodging after restoring normal contraction to the top chambers of the heart (atria).
Herein lies the rub with dabigatran, and the two soon-to-be-approved non-warfarin blood-thinning agents, apixaban and rivaroxaban. In the past, Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
