Statins and risk

In support of his view that overconfidence could be endemic in medicine, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman wrote: ‘Experts who acknowledge the full extent of their ignorance may expect to be replaced by...

Challenges prescribing antiarrhythmic medications for infants and children

Arrhythmias occurring during infancy and childhood are less common than those occurring in the adult population, with SVT (an umbrella term for arrhythmias originating within or incorporating atrial...

Personalisation of DAPT: from ‘bench’ to bedside

Given the ever-increasing body of evidence and availability of scoring systems, the authors aimed to assess if the personalisation of DAPT was being translated into clinical practice. A single centre...

The role of bempedoic acid in the management of dyslipidaemia

Cholesterol is a molecule which is an essential component in the body’s ability to form healthy cell membranes, but as far back as the 19th century it was recognised that atheromatous plaques...

Current and emerging approaches to lowering patient cholesterol

Recently approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), inclisiran may be a ‘game changer’ for people who have previously had a heart attack or stroke. NICE (2021) issued...

Understanding the pharmacology of heart failure

HF is defined by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) as a complex clinical syndrome that occurs from any structural or functional impairment of ventricular filling...

Salt, blood pressure and cardiovascular disease

Understanding primary prevention of cardiovascular disease

The NHS Health Check programme was designed to identify people with risk factors for CVD and ensure that they had access to the support and medication they might need to reduce that risk (Waterall,...

The earlier the better: statins to reduce cholesterol and cardiovascular disease

A recently published study evaluated incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) and the initiation as well as subsequent adherence to statin treatment for the treatment of primary prevention in those who...

Statin prescribing, preventative use and lipid levels

This review of the literature published in the Journal of Vascular Health and Risk Management (Reynolds et al, 2021), looked at the important area of the use of the drug group statins and the...

Evidence-based use of newer agents in type 2 diabetes

Recent accumulating evidence on the use of newer therapies in type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is helping to define their position in treatment. This information coupled with the increasing priority given...

Cardiovascular disease: the gender divide

According to statistics from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) there are 830 000 women in the UK living with coronary heart disease (CHD), and around 380 000 women in the UK have survived a heart...