News and views

We continue our series in which consultant interventionist Dr Michael Norell takes a sideways look at life in the cath lab... and beyond. In this column, medical conference paraphernalia come under scrutiny....

This is the first in a regular series of ‘Case Conferences’ dealing with ‘difficult’ angina, or patients who present with challenging myocardial ischaemia (even in the absence of symptoms). Decisions are not always either ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ in such cases and the purpose is to aim for consensus on an appropriate management strategy. These cases are designed to be interactive and we encourage comments from our readers. We hope that you find these cases interesting and informative and that you join in the debate....

NICE updates its hypertension guidance A general practitioner’s view of the new guidance Rimonabant launched for obesity treatment New home monitoring technology gives greater control to chronic heart failure patients Cordis scholarships for clinical cardiology research...

We continue our series in which Consultant Interventionist Dr Michael Norell takes a sideways look at life in the cath lab...and beyond. In this column, he dissects the 21st century obsession with corporate rationale....

NICE issues guidance on smoking cessation and physical activity World Heart Day to focus on diet and exercise for a ‘young’ heart...

The 21st Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society of Hypertension (ASH) was held in New York, US from May 16th-20th, 2006. Dr Martin Godfrey reports some of the meeting highlights, which included results from a study looking at the role of the renin-angiotensin system in atherosclerosis development and another which looked at the first orally active agent to block renin....

The ASTEROID trial, which showed regression of atherosclerosis by reducing low-density lipoprotein cholesterol to new lows and simultaneously improving high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, was one of the highlights of this year's American College of Cardiology meeting held in Atlanta, Georgia, US, on March 11–14th 2006. Other successes included two new antithrombotic regimens that improved outcomes compared with unfractionated heparin in ST-elevation myocardial infarction patients, while clopidogrel showed disappointing results in a large study of primary/secondary prevention....

We continue our series in which Consultant Interventionist Dr Michael Norell takes a sideways look at life in the cath lab...and beyond. In this column, he examines the similarities between the cath lab and televised popular sports....

We continue our series where Consultant Interventionist Dr Michael Norell takes a sideways look at life in the cath lab ..... and beyond. In this column, he looks at how cardiologists can personalise their cars....

Patients attending cardiology clinics, particularly those with chronic heart failure (CHF), frequently have co-morbidities and attend other hospital medical clinics. We examined the case notes of 162 patients attending two cardiology clinics. Many patients’ notes extended to more than one volume (20%). Patients with CHF were more likely to require rubber bands to maintain control of their notes than other cardiac patients. Despite efforts to move to a paperless record keeping system, rubber bands still play a major role in the NHS....