Check this article

[Georgia]

Here's the address: (I'm incapable of inserting a hyperlink for some reason)

http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/conditions/11/10/heart.treatment.ap/index.html

A caution for all of us!

 

[fyrfytr]

Hey Georgia,
That was very interesting. Thanks for posting it. It just reminds us that we do need to take more control of our own healthcare and keep updated on what is going on.
Take Care

Dave
___________________________
Surgery: 4/21/03
Aortic Aneurysm Repair
AVR, with a St. Jude Mechanical

 

[Blanche]

Georgia:
Thanks for posting this. I read it in the paper this morning and wanted to post it here, but I too am hyperlink insertion challenged. This article is proof again that being proactive as a health care consumer is a requirement, not a choice. The article suggested that some doctors are ignorant of proper procedures. Ignorant means that they just plain don't know what they should know. Maybe we should send this article to our doctors.

Blanche

 

[MelissaM]

Findings [were based] on discharge data on 54,639 heart failure patients at 260 hospitals between October 2001 and January 2003. The registry is sponsored by Johnson & Johnson's Scios pharmaceutical unit, which is developing new heart disease treatments. Fonarow presented the results at the heart association's annual scientific meeting in Orlando.

Hmmmm. .. very interesting. Turns out this study was funded by Scios - the pharmaceutical arm of J & J which produces a drug (Natrecore) similar to ACE inhibitors. Maybe we need to be vigilant of our doctors, the media, AND the pharm companies!

 

[Ross]

Hmmmm. .. very interesting. Turns out this study was funded by Scios - the pharmaceutical arm of J & J which produces a drug (Natrecore) similar to ACE inhibitors. Maybe we need to be vigilant of our doctors, the media, AND the pharm companies!

Trust No one!

 

[khan2]

Sorry to disappoint but Scios has nothing to do with ACE inhibitors (ACEI). Their drug, natrecor, is a recombinant copy of a substance the body makes, brain natriuretic peptide.

I suspect at least part of the real reason is that most ACEI are now generic and make very little profit for the drug companies. So there is almost no promotion of ACEI any more. However, there is a newer class of drugs that compete with ACE inhibitors called angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) that are still on patent and generate much more profit. These are heavily marketed to physicians and account for at least some of the problems with ACEI use. ARBs are not currently an acceptable substitute for ACEI in the guidelines with 1 or 2 studies showing them equal to ACEI for heart failure and about 3 showing them to be inferior to ACEI.

Of course, part of the reason is that in general, docs aren't very good with guidelines.

Best,