Weekly Guideline - ICD Use in Non-Trial Indications

"HRS/ACC/AHA Expert Consensus Statement on the Use of Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator Therapy in Patients Who Are Not Included or Not Well Represented in Clinical Trials"
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2014/05/09/CIR.0000000000000056

CIRC - Subclinical A Fib & Embolic Events

"Temporal Relationship Between Subclinical Atrial Fibrillation and Embolic Events"
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/129/21/2094.abstract
"Conclusions—Although SCAF is associated with an increased risk of stroke and embolism, very few patients had SCAF in the month before their event."

BMJ - Stroke and Time to TPA

"Time to treatment with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator and outcome of stroke in clinical practice"
http://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g3429
"Conclusion The effectiveness of thrombolytic therapy in daily clinical practice might be comparable with the effectiveness shown in randomised clinical trials and pooled analysis. Early treatment was associated with favourable outcome in daily clinical practice, which underlines the importance of speeding up the process for thrombolytic therapy in hospital and before admission to achieve shorter time from door to needle and from onset to treatment for thrombolytic therapy."  

NEJM - Bariatric Surgery vs. Medical

"Bariatric Surgery versus Intensive Medical Therapy for Diabetes — 3-Year Outcomes"
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1401329
"CONCLUSIONS

Among obese patients with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes, 3 years of intensive medical therapy plus bariatric surgery resulted in glycemic control in significantly more patients than did medical therapy alone. Analyses of secondary end points, including body weight, use of glucose-lowering medications, and quality of life, also showed favorable results at 3 years in the surgical groups, as compared with the group receiving medical therapy alone. (Funded by Ethicon and others; STAMPEDE ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00432809.)"

JAMA - Hip OA and Physical Therapy

"Effect of Physical Therapy on Pain and Function in Patients With Hip Osteoarthritis"
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1872817
"Conclusions and Relevance  Among adults with painful hip osteoarthritis, physical therapy did not result in greater improvement in pain or function compared with sham treatment, raising questions about its value for these patients."

Weekly Guideline - Obesity and Cancer

2014 ASCO Obesiy and Cancer: A Guide for Oncology Providers
http://www.asco.org/sites/www.asco.org/files/obesity_provider_guide_final.pdf

Circ - Assessments of Stroke and Bleeding Risk in Atrial Fibrillation

"Lack of Concordance Between Empirical Scores and Physician Assessments of Stroke and Bleeding Risk in Atrial Fibrillation"
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/129/20/2005.abstract
"Conclusions—There is little agreement between provider-assessed risk and empirical scores in AF. These differences may explain, in part, the current divergence of anticoagulation treatment decisions from guideline recommendations."  

BMJ - Hip Surgery Volume and Complications

"Relation between surgeon volume and risk of complications after total hip arthroplasty: propensity score matched cohort study"  
http://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g3284 
"Conclusions In a cohort of first time recipients of total hip arthroplasty, patients whose operation was carried by surgeons who had performed 35 or fewer such procedures in the year before the index procedure were at increased risk for dislocation and early revision. Surgeons should consider performing 35 cases or more a year to minimize the risk for complications. Furthermore, the methods used to visualize the relationship between surgeon volume and the occurrence of complications can be easily applied in any jurisdiction, to help inform and optimize local healthcare delivery."

NEJM - Acetlycysteine for Pulmonary Fibrosis

"Randomized Trial of Acetylcysteine in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis"
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1401739?query=featured_home 
"CONCLUSIONS

As compared with placebo, acetylcysteine offered no significant benefit with respect to the preservation of FVC in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis with mild-to-moderate impairment in lung function. (Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and others; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00650091.)"

JAMA - Drug therapy for Alcohol Abuse

"Pharmacotherapy for Adults With Alcohol Use Disorders in Outpatient Settings"
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1869208
"Conclusions and Relevance  Both acamprosate and oral naltrexone were associated with reduction in return to drinking. When directly compared with one another, no significant differences were found between acamprosate and naltrexone for controlling alcohol consumption. Factors such as dosing frequency, potential adverse events, and availability of treatments may guide medication choice."

Weekly Guideline - 2013 ESC Cardiac Pacing / Resynchronization

"2013 ESC Guidelines on cardiac pacing and cardiac resynchronization therapy"
http://eurheartj.oxfordjournals.org/content/34/29/2281.full.pdf

Circ Sildenafil in Pediatric Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension

"STARTS-2 Long-Term Survival With Oral Sildenafil Monotherapy in Treatment-Naive Pediatric Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension"  
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/129/19/1914.abstract
"Conclusions—Although children randomized to higher compared with lower sildenafil doses had an unexplained increased mortality, all sildenafil dose groups displayed favorable survival for children with pulmonary arterial hypertension."

BMJ - Fiber Post MI

"Dietary fiber intake and mortality among survivors of myocardial infarction: prospective cohort study"
http://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g2659
"Conclusions In this prospective study of patients who survived MI, a greater intake of dietary fiber after MI, especially cereal fiber, was inversely associated with all cause mortality. In addition, increasing consumption of fiber from before to after MI was significantly associated with lower all cause and cardiovascular mortality."

NEJM - Aortic Valve: Expanding Transcatheter Prosthesis

"Transcatheter Aortic-Valve Replacement with a Self-Expanding Prosthesis"  
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1400590?query=featured_home 
"CONCLUSIONS

In patients with severe aortic stenosis who are at increased surgical risk, TAVR with a self-expanding transcatheter aortic-valve bioprosthesis was associated with a significantly higher rate of survival at 1 year than surgical aortic-valve replacement."

JAMA: Autism - Familial Risk

"The Familial Risk of Autism"
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1866100
"Conclusions and Relevance  Among children born in Sweden, the individual risk of ASD and autistic disorder increased with increasing genetic relatedness. Heritability of ASD and autistic disorder were estimated to be approximately 50%. These findings may inform the counseling of families with affected children."  

Weekly Guideline: 2014 AHA PCI Without On-Site Surgery Backup

2014 SCAI / ACC / AHA Update on Percutaneous Corinary Intervention Without On-site Surgerical Backup
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2014/03/13/CIR.0000000000000037

Circ: Chilhood Obesity & Blood Pressure

"Effect of Childhood Obesity Prevention Programs on Blood Pressure"
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/129/18/1832.abstract 
"Conclusions—Obesity prevention programs have a moderate effect on reducing BP, and those targeting both diet and physical activity seem to be more effective."

Lancet: Ruptured Aortic Aneurysm Mortality US vs England

"Mortality from ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms: clinical lessons from a comparison of outcomes in England and the USA"
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)60109-4/fulltext
"Interpretation

In-hospital survival from rAAA, intervention rates, and uptake of endovascular repair are lower in England than in the USA. In England and the USA, the lowest mortality for rAAA was seen in teaching hospitals with larger bed capacities and doing a greater proportion of cases with endovascular repair. These common factors suggest strategies for improving outcomes for patients with rAAA." 

NEJM: Septic Shock Protocols

"A Randomized Trial of Protocol-Based Care for Early Septic Shock"  
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1401602
"CONCLUSIONS

In a multicenter trial conducted in the tertiary care setting, protocol-based resuscitation of patients in whom septic shock was diagnosed in the emergency department did not improve outcomes. (Funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences; ProCESS ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00510835.)"

JAMA: Fluconazole Prophylaxis in Premature Infants

"Effect of Fluconazole Prophylaxis on Candidiasis and Mortality in Premature Infants"
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1866096
"Conclusions and Relevance  Among infants with a birth weight of less than 750 g, 42 days of fluconazole prophylaxis compared with placebo did not result in a lower incidence of the composite of death or invasive candidiasis. These findings do not support the universal use of prophylactic fluconazole in extremely low-birth-weight infants."

Circ: MI Survival with Different Repurfusion Treatments

"Five-Year Survival in Patients With ST-Segment–Elevation Myocardial Infarction According to Modalities of Reperfusion Therapy"
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/129/16/1629.abstract
"Conclusions—In a real-world setting, on a nationwide scale, a pharmaco-invasive strategy constitutes a valid alternative to pPCI, with 5-year survival at least equivalent to that of the reference reperfusion method."