We hope that genetic testing will become a practical tool in the next five to ten years and may, at some point, replace, or at least add to, the assessments we use today.
A cardiologist discusses three changes recommended in the new guidelines on management of high blood pressure: (1) a more lenient goal for patients older than age 60; (2) elimination of the category called "pre-hypertension"; and (3) the removal of a class of blood pressure drugs called beta blockers from the list of first-line agents.
Is the new risk calculator overestimating risk and putting more people on statins than necessary? Is it underestimating risk and not putting enough people at risk on statins? Is it putting the wrong patients on statins?
A cardiologist reports: "I have noticed that patients seem to worry more about a statin’s side effects than they consider its benefits. Many patients wonder if taking a daily medicine, potentially for the rest of their life, is going to cause problems."
Aside from preventing a heart attack in the short run, statins also slow, or even stop, the gradual formation of plaque that narrows the coronary arteries over a span of decades. Since there is almost no chance of getting rid of plaque once it is there, why not get a head start on prevention by starting the medication earlier, before the plaque forms?
Dr. Patricia Yarberry Allen is a collaborative physician. This week, she asks cardiologist Timothy C. Dutta to lay out the startling, research-backed numbers showing the impact of the lifestyle choices of Americans on their risk of heart disease.
This week, Dr. Patricia Yarberry Allen asks cardiologist Timothy C. Dutta to counsel a survivor of Hodgkin’s disease who worries about the consequences of the radiation therapy that saved her life 16 years ago.