Clinical cardiology
-
Clinical cardiology · Nov 2014
ReviewModern obesity pharmacotherapy: weighing cardiovascular risk and benefit.
Obesity is a major correlate of cardiovascular disease. Weight loss improves cardiovascular risk factors and has the potential to improve outcomes. Two drugs, phentermine plus topiramate and lorcaserin, have recently been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the indication of obesity; a third, bupropion plus naltrexone, is under consideration for approval. ⋯ New weight-loss drugs share the serotonergic and sympathomimetic mechanisms that proved harmful in the cases of Fen-Phen and sibutramine, respectively, albeit with significant differences. Given these risks, randomized cardiovascular outcomes trials are needed to establish the safety, and potential benefit, of these drugs. This review will discuss the history of pharmacotherapy for obesity, existing efficacy and safety data for the novel weight-loss drugs, and issues in the design of postapproval clinical trials.
-
Clinical cardiology · Nov 2014
Noncardiac surgery in patients with aortic stenosis: a contemporary study on outcomes in a matched sample from the Danish health care system.
Past research has identified aortic stenosis (AS) as a major risk factor for adverse outcomes in noncardiac surgery; however, more contemporary studies have questioned the grave prognosis. To further our understanding of this, the risks of a 30-day major adverse cardiovascular event (MACE) and all-cause mortality were investigated in a contemporary Danish cohort. ⋯ AS is associated with high perioperative rates of MACE and mortality, but perhaps prognosis is, in practice, not much worse for patients with AS than for matched controls. Symptomatic patients and patients undergoing emergency surgery are at considerable risks of a MACE and mortality.