December 15, 2020
Patients treated with the MitraClip (Abbott) at one of three European hospitals were more likely to survive and avoid rehospitalization if they fit a “COAPT-like profile” based on echocardiography parameters, researchers reported in
JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions last week.
According to lead author Marianna Adamo, MD (ASST Spedali Civili di Brescia, Italy), the findings shed light on patient prognosis following the percutaneous procedure as it relates to underlying COAPT criteria defined here as a lack of severe left ventricular (LV) impairment, hemodynamic instability, and right ventricular (RV) impairment and/or severe pulmonary hypertension.
“We wanted to dispel the concept of nonapplicability of these criteria in the real world,” Adamo told TCTMD in an email. Not only were more than two-thirds of the patients who’d been treated with the clip COAPT-like but “these patients had a significantly better outcome compared to non-COAPT-like ones,
Sunday morning as North Texans awoke to cold rain, three FedEx trucks were escorted out of a Pfizer facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, precariously packed with COVID-19 vaccines. The semis, which have “Custom Critical” written on the back, are the first measure in an intricate logistical symphony now being played out across the country.
Additionally, on Sunday, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Robert Redfield gave the final all-clear for the vaccine to be administered. Ready or not, rain or snow, the go button has officially been pushed.
The head of the nation s coronavirus vaccine efforts, Moncef Slaoui, told Fox News the government plans to distribute 40 million vaccine doses by the end of the year, then another 50 to 80 million doses in January and February, which will likely be distributed in tiers of essential works and at-risk adults with medical conditions. Nonessential, relatively healthy adults will likely have to wait until the summer or
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An oral taxane plus reduced-dose capecitabine increased the progression-free interval in metastatic breast cancer (MBC) by about 3 months, initial results from a randomized trial showed.
Patients treated with tesetaxel and capecitabine had a median progression-free survival of 9.8 months as compared with 6.9 months with capecitabine monotherapy. Two-thirds of patients in the tesetaxel arm had disease control at 24 weeks versus half of those in the placebo group, and the all-oral combination regimen led to significantly more objective responses.
The benefits were consistent across prespecified subgroups and occurred within the context of a manageable side-effect profile, Joyce O Shaughnessy, MD, of Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, reported during the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium virtual meeting.