TCTMD’s Top 10 Most Popular Stories for July 2018

A valsartan recall, more hand-wringing over ISCHEMIA and ORBITA, and a new cardiology-focused review of food fads dominated the Top 10 this month. Readers also paid close attention to several stories related to the CMS review of TAVR program requirements, which looked at questions on hospital volume, quality metrics, and two-surgeon sign-off. Topics rounding out the list were a new SCAI document on intracoronary diagnostic tools, epinephrine in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, and a PVAD/IABP comparison.

1. FDA Recalls Valsartan-Containing Drugs After Detection of Carcinogen

The FDA, as well as European and Canadian regulators, pulled valsartan drug products after NDMA was identified in some medications.

2. Once Again, ISCHEMIA Trial Feels the Squeeze

There’s more hand-wringing, and more controversy, as the ISCHEMIA design paper sees the light of day. Will PCI or OMT win out in stable, ischemic CAD?

3. TAVR’s Two-Surgeon Sign-off Rule Must Go, Experts Say

The requirement that two different surgeons review a patient’s suitability for SAVR versus TAVR is the greatest barrier to timely care, an editorial argues.

4. Chew on This: Review Tackles Controversies in Nutrition for CV Health

Cardiologists “are plagued with lots and lots of questions about diet and lifestyle” but may lack the answers. A new document aims to help.

5. ORBITA Redux: Lancet Correspondence Takes Talk of the Sham-Controlled PCI Trial to Further Heights

In nine letters to the editor, researchers hashed over the trial once again, debating everything from ischemia and patient symptoms to statistics.

6. CMS Advisory Panel Splits on TAVR Volume Requirements

Confidence in whether the requirements are necessary hinged on how panelists interpreted the data on volume-outcome relationships.

7. PARAMEDIC2: Epinephrine in Cardiac Arrest Is Good for Survival, Bad for the Brain

Ten years in the making, randomized trial results on a half-century-old resuscitation mainstay should spur a sober look at societal beliefs and values.

8. Do PVADs and IABPs Offer Similar Survival in High-Risk PCI or Cardiogenic Shock?

A new meta-analysis is “interesting,” but given the small size of the studies and heterogeneous populations, drawing conclusions is tricky, one expert says.

9. Updated TAVR Consensus Statement Keeps Volume Requirements but Shifts Focus to Quality

The document provides a framework for centers to eventually be judged on quality alone, and not volume, one of the authors says.

10. SCAI Updates Statement on Intracoronary Diagnostic Tools

The focused update to a 2014 consensus statement reflects the emergence of iFR and brings in new data on FFR, IVUS, and OCT.