Treatment disparities in acute coronary syndromes, heart failure, and kidney disease.

It has been consistently observed that patients with renal dysfunction have more premature, severe, complicated, and fatal cardiovascular disease than age- and sex-matched individuals with normal renal function. There have been 4 major explanations for this finding: (1) positive confounding by third variables associated with chronic kidney disease (CKD), including diabetes mellitus and hypertension; (2) therapeutic nihilism or lesser use of beneficial therapies in CKD; (3) greater toxicities of therapies, such as bleeding from anticoagulants or contrast-induced kidney injury; (4) biological factors which result directly from CKD that work to promote and accelerate cardiovascular disease. In this paper, we focus on the issue of treatment disparities or therapeutic nihilism and its contribution to poor outcomes in the setting of acute coronary syndromes and acutely decompensated heart failure.

Antirestenotic effects of a locally delivered caspase inhibitor in a balloon injury model.

Background: The precise role of arterial barotrauma-mediated apoptosis in causing restenosis is unclear. The purpose of this study was to determine if a link exists between angioplasty-mediated medial smooth muscle cell apoptosis and subsequent neointimal hyperplasia.

Methods And Results: Bilateral iliac artery angioplasty was performed in 25 male New Zealand White rabbits.