Antithrombotic Therapy for Atrial Fibrillation with Stable Coronary Disease (AFIRE)
Thank you Nikita for leading us through a discussion of the AFIRE trial.
Clinical Question:
In patients with atrial fibrillation and stable CAD >1 year after revascularization (or confirmed CAD on angiography not requiring revascularization), how does rivaroxaban monotherapy compare to rivaroxaban plus an antiplatelet agent in terms of efficacy and safety?
POET Trial: Partial Oral versus Intravenous Antibiotic Treatment of Endocarditis
Clinical Question: In clinically stable patients with endocarditis, does a shift from IV to PO administration of antibiotics result in similar efficacy and safety when compared to continued IV antibiotic therapy?
STOP-IT: Is a Short Course of Antibiotics Adequate for Intraabdominal Infections?
Current antibiotic stewardship guidelines at Olive View recommend 4 days of antibiotics for intraabdominal infections once source control is achieved. Here is clinical evidence of this "short" duration of antibiotics.
Adjunctive Glucocorticoid Therapy in Patients with Septic Shock (ADRENAL)
Does hydrocortisone decrease mortality in patients with septic shock?
Combination Therapy in Influenza
Influenza is still in season, and we are certainly seeing primary flu and secondary complications like pneumonia. So here’s an interesting question: does combination therapy with the addition of clarithromycin and naproxen in patients hospitalized for acute influenza have any benefit?
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and risk of heart failure in four European countries
Do you ever give NSAID’s to patients with cardiomyopathy? Usually not, and here is evidence supporting why we don’t. But are there some NSAID’s that have less unfavorable outcomes?
Reduced Cardiovascular and Renal Events with Canaglifozin (CANVAS + CANVAS-R)
Thank you, Alex, for a review of outcome data for one of the newest diabetes medications: canaglifozin (Invokana®). Canaglifozin is a SGLT2 inhibitor, which decreases reabsorption of glucose in the renal tubules. Clinical Question: Among patients with DM2 at high risk…
Time-to-Furosemide Treatment and Mortality in Patients Hospitalized with Acute Heart Failure
Key Discussion Points: Early treatment of acute heart failure with loop diuretics lowers mortality despite initial mortality risk, and this treatment strategy might be even more effective in high-risk AHF patients Earlier treatment/identification of acute heart failure relied heavily on…
Age-Adjusted D-dimer Cutoff Levels to Rule Out Pulmonary Embolism: The ADJUST-PE Study
What d-dimer threshold do you use to determine if a patient potentially has a pulmonary embolism? Do you adjust it according to the patient's age? Is that even valid? This prospective validation study helps answer this question: Does adjusting the…