"This study could influence preoperative pharmacological management of patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery," Dr. Di Sciascio said. "The low cost and low risk of statin therapy may support its routine, early use in these patients." Dr. Di Sciascio will present the ARMYDA-3 study at a Late Breaking Clinical Trials session on Sunday, March 12, at 2 p.m.
Ultrafiltration versus Intravenous Diuretics for Patients Hospitalized for Acute Decompensated Heart Failure (UNLOAD)
There are approximately one million hospital admissions for heart failure each year in the United States, 90 percent as a consequence of fluid overload in the lungs and other body tissues. Aggressive treatment with diuretics is a mainstay of therapy. Now, a new study suggests that a more effective approach is to withdraw the patient's blood through tubing in a small vein, circulate it through a filtering system that removes excess fluid, then return the blood through a tube in another vein.
"Diuretics have never before been challenged in a controlled clinical trial of acute decompensated heart failure," said Maria Rosa Costanzo, M.D., medical director of the Edward Hospital Center for Heart Failure, Naperville, IL, a suburb of Chicago.
"We found that ultrafiltration was more effective in removing fluid and that patients were less likely to be readmitted to the hospital within three months."
Dr. Costanzo and her colleagues randomly assigned 200 patients hospitalized for uncontrolled heart failure to aggressive treatment with intravenous diuretics or to ultrafiltration. They evaluated patients during treatment, upon discharge from the hospital, and at 10, 30, and 90 days. Patients lost significantly more water weight with ultrafiltration, requ
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13-Mar-2006