Publications by authors named "Elizabeth S Fraulo"
Background: Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a hereditary condition caused by various genetic mutations that lead to significantly elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels and resulting in a 20-fold increased lifetime risk for premature cardiovascular disease. Although its prevalence in the United States is 1 in 300 to 500 individuals, <10% of FH patients are formally diagnosed, and many are not appropriately treated. Contemporary data are needed to more fully characterize FH disease prevalence, treatment strategies, and patient experiences in the United States.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia and is associated with an increased risk of stroke, heart failure, and death. Data on contemporary treatment patterns and outcomes associated with AF in clinical practice are limited.
Methods/design: The Outcomes Registry for Better Informed Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation is a multicenter, prospective, ambulatory-based registry of incident and prevalent AF.
Translating research results into routine clinical practice remains difficult. Guidelines, such as the 2002 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Guidelines for the Management of Patients with Unstable Angina and non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, have been developed to provide a streamlined, evidence-based approach to patient care that is of high quality and is reproducible. The Can Rapid Risk Stratification of Unstable Angina Patients Suppress ADverse Outcomes with Early Implementation (CRUSADE) Quality Improvement Initiative was developed as a registry for non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndromes to track the use of guideline-based acute and discharge treatments for hospitalized patients, as well as outcomes associated with the use of these treatments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The extent to which national health quality improvement initiatives have altered reported treatment gaps among patients with non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndromes (NSTE ACS) is unknown. We sought to determine recent trends in adherence to guideline-based therapies for NSTE ACS.
Methods: We evaluated the treatment of patients with high-risk (positive cardiac markers and/or ischemic ST-segment changes) NSTE ACS enrolled in the Can Rapid Risk Stratification of Unstable Angina Patients Suppress Adverse Outcomes With Early Implementation of the ACC/AHA (American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association) Guidelines (CRUSADE) Quality Improvement Initiative from 2002 through 2004 (a total of 113 595 patients over 11 calendar quarters).
Article Synopsis
- Sudden cardiac death is a major concern for patients with congestive heart failure (CHF), and treatments like amiodarone and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICD) may help improve survival.
- A study involved 2521 patients with CHF, assigning them to receive either placebo, amiodarone, or an ICD, with a focus on overall mortality over a 45.5-month follow-up period.
- Results showed that while amiodarone did not significantly reduce mortality, ICD therapy led to a 23% decrease in death risk, suggesting it is a more effective treatment for improving survival in these patients.
Background: The acute benefits of platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors for non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndromes (NSTE ACS) remain unclear.
Methods: In this pilot trial, 311 patients with NSTE ACS were randomly assigned in the emergency department to double-blinded therapy with eptifibatide or placebo for 12 to 24 hours before crossover to open-label eptifibatide. Serial creatine-kinase MB (CK-MB) and quantitative cardiac troponin T levels were collected during the first 24 hours to assess the impact of early platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa blockade on infarct size as measured by cardiac markers.