Tag Archives: chelation therapy

FREEDOM: CABG beats PCI in diabetes patients with multi-vessel disease Coronary artery by-pass graft (CABG) surgery was associated with better outcomes than percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with diabetes with multi-vessel coronary artery disease in the FREEDOM (Future Revascularization Evaluation in Patients With Diabetes Mellitus: Optimal Management of Multi-vessel Disease) trial. Senior FREEDOM investigator, Dr Valentin Fuster (Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, USA), said the results (table 1) would change practice. He estimated that patients in this study represent about a quarter of patients undergoing PCI. In

Introduction Table 1. Differentiating thalassaemia major and intermedia Thalassaemia was first described as a significant problem in the UK in the mid-1950s and was predominantly observed in patients of African or Mediterranean descent. By 1998, more than 800 patients with thalassaemia major were included on the UK Thalassaemia Register.1 As with thalassaemia major, patients with thalassaemia intermedia have a homozygous genotype (i.e. have inherited an affected beta-gene from both parents) but they demonstrate milder clinical symptoms. The clinical phenotypes of thalassaemia intermedia lie between those of thalassaemia minor and major. Altho