Introduction: Shared decision-making (SDM) is a method of care by which patients and clinicians work together to co-create a plan of care. Electronic health record (EHR) integration of SDM tools may increase adoption of SDM. We conducted a "lightweight" integration of a freely available electronic SDM tool, CV Prevention Choice, within the EHRs of three healthcare systems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPatients at high risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) tend to receive less intensive preventive care. Clinical practice guidelines recommend shared decision making (SDM) to improve the quality of primary CVD prevention. There are tools for use during the clinical encounter that promote SDM, but, to our knowledge, there are no SDM encounter tools that support conversations about available lifestyle and pharmacological options that can lead to preventive care that is congruent with patient goals and CVD risk.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The primary prevention of cardiovascular (CV) events is often less intense in persons at higher CV risk and vice versa. Clinical practice guidelines recommend that clinicians and patients use shared decision making (SDM) to arrive at an effective and feasible prevention plan that is congruent with each person's CV risk and informed preferences. However, SDM does not routinely happen in practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Coronary calcification is a potent independent predictor of coronary risk. Sex-specific risk categories based on calcium scores have been established, but ethnic differences in coronary calcification have been little studied. This prospective cohort study compares coronary calcification, assessed by computed tomography, in postmenopausal black women and white women.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Paclitaxel (PXL)-eluting stents in animals cause incomplete healing and, in some instances, a lack of sustained suppression of neointimal growth. The present study tested the efficacy of a novel systemic delivery nanoparticle PXL for reducing in-stent restenosis.
Methods And Results: A saline-reconstituted formulation of PXL stabilized by albumin nanoparticles (nPXL) was tested in 38 New Zealand White rabbits receiving bilateral iliac artery stents.
Unfractionated heparin (UFH) has been traditionally used as an antithrombotic agent following fibrinolytic therapy for acute myocardial infarction. However, UFH has pharmacokinetic, biophysical, and biological limitations. Although early infarct artery patency has been superior with UFH as compared with placebo, aggregate data has demonstrated only a modest reduction in clinical events.
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