Use of pharmacogenetics to guide cardiovascular drug prescribing

Clopidogrel is an antiplatelet therapy that is used to prevent myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke in individuals with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) (either managed medically or with PCI), those...

Inotrope therapy for neonatal hypotension

Dopamine is a cardiac stimulant and is a naturally occurring precursor to norepinephrine and epinephrine. Dopamine has alpha-adrenergic effects and stimulates beta1 receptors in cardiac muscle to...

Post-operative medication considerations in cardiac transplant patients

Risks of transplant include rejection, primary graft dysfunction, immunosuppression side effects such as infection, weight gain, hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis and cardiac allograft vasculopathy...

Tafamidis use in amyloid cardiomyopathy

This study, published in the journal Cardiology and Therapy, sought to determine real-world prescribing patterns of tafamidis with respect to patient characteristics and persistency. Using a...

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,...