MRI Offers Powerful Research Tool for Assessing Lipid-Lowering Therapy

MRI scans might give researchers a powerful new tool for monitoring the effectiveness of lipid therapies for coronary or carotid artery disease, a new study shows.

Led by Dr. Xue-Qiao Zhao, of the University of Washington, Seattle, the researchers sought to determine if cholesterol-lowering drugs deplete plaque lipid content. Zhao told the Hub by e-mail that they used MRI as a tool to make direct assessment of the plaque tissue composition during treatment. The study appears in the October issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Imaging. (Link to published site)

Does Actos Reduce Stroke Risk?

written by Michael O’Leary

Not to be outdone by upstart Juvisync, a new study shows that long-time type 2 diabetes drug, Actos, may also have blood vessel benefits.

The small study of 52 type 2 diabetes patients, published in the October Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that patients taking pioglitazone (Actos) had reduced inflammation associated with plaque deposits in the main arteries serving the head and neck. Such deposits are thought to increase the risk of stroke. (Link to published site)

Stress Echocardiography Predictive of Heart Attack or Death in HIV Patients

Abnormal results on a stress echo-
cardiogram in HIV patients with
known or suspected heart disease

 predict dramatically higher risk of
heart attack or cardiac death.
(Image courtesy: Wikipedia, taken by

Kjetil Lenes)

HIV patients with abnormal results on a ultrasound stress test have nearly a 10 times higher risk of a heart attack or cardiac death than the normal population, and more than three times the risk of people without HIV who have an abnormal stress echocardiogram a new study shows.

Senior author of the study, Dr. Farooq Chaudhry, associate professor of medicine, and colleagues at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City performed stress echo tests on 311 HIV patients with suspected or known heart disease. They reported their findings online before the July 12, 2011 print issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging.

The researchers looked at whether stress echo can help predict risk of heart attack and death in a high-risk population, in this case HIV patients with known or suspected heart disease. HIV infection and the drugs used to treat it have been associated with accelerated coronary artery disease and cardiovascular events in prior research. While stress echocardiography is an accepted method of diagnosis, risk evaluation and prognosis of coronary artery disease, its prognostic value in HIV-positive patients is unknown. (Link to published site)