Statins may help keep heart-transplant patients alive longer, say researchers from Munich-Bogenhausen, University Hospital Munich-Grosshadern, and University Hospital Leipzig. According to an eight-year prospective, randomized, unmasked study of 72 patients, 89% of those who were given simvastatin (Zocor medication, Merck) four days after transplantation survived, in contrast to 60% of patients who didn’t start a [...]
If patients who are taking the anticoagulant generic warfarin suddenly have a lower International Normalized Ratio (INR), health care providers are advised to determine whether they are also consuming soy protein. A pharmacist at Fallon Clinic, in Webster, Massachusetts, described a patient who was stable with warfarin therapy until he started drinking soy milk daily [...]
An 82-year-old woman had been having nosebleeds and had been bruising easily for two weeks. The only culprit seemed to be the generic losartan she had been taking for cough—for two weeks. There was no bleeding from any other site. The patient had no history of similar symptoms and had been taking her other medications [...]
Who is more likely to keep blood pressure at normal levels after antihyperten-sive drug therapy is discontinued? Researchers in Australia monitored 503 patients aged 65 to 84, from 169 general practices, to find out. Their answer: After 12 months, it is the younger patients (ages 65 to 74) with a lower “on-treatment” systolic blood pressure [...]
An accelerated approach to managing patients with atrial fibrillation may lead to safe and shorter hospital stays at lower cost. In a pilot study by researchers from Evanston (IL) Northwestern Healthcare and the University of Michigan, 18 patients with newly diagnosed or new-onset uncomplicated atrial fibrillation were managed either with traditional care (routine hospital admission [...]
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved rosuvastatin (Drug Crestor®, AstraZeneca) to lower serum cholesterol levels. Lowering cholesterol is a key to reducing the risk of heart disease. Rosuvastatin is in the class of drugs called HMG-coenzyme A reductase inhibitors, also known as statins. These drugs partially block the synthesis of cholesterol in the [...]
Statins, which are often prescribed to reduce high cholesterol levels, have proved safe, effective, and well tolerated; however, interactions with other drugs may be putting some patients at higher risk for myopathy (muscle disease). Myopathy is traditionally defined as a creatine kinase level greater than 10 times the upper limits of normal. Symptoms include generalized [...]
