New Guidelines for Cholesterol-Lowering Statin Drugs

Recent media reports have caused some alarm and confusion about newly published guidelines for statin drugs. Statin drugs reduce cholesterol levels and also decrease cardiac and vascular disease, independent of their cholesterol-lowering effect. Statins provide multiple benefits, but the mechanisms of their actions are not yet fully understood. Like any medication, there is a risk of side effects, which can occur in up to 18 percent of patients and most often consist of muscle pain or temporary derangement of liver function. Rare serious side effects have been described. (more…)

A ‘Heart Team’ Protects Patients from Unnecessary Stents

A recent article in the financial press (Bloomberg) drew wide attention to inappropriate and excessive use of stents in patients with coronary artery disease (disease in the vessels that supply blood to the heart). Stents are tiny mesh tubes placed in a diseased coronary artery to “prop” it open after a narrowed segment of it has been expanded by a balloon. (more…)

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