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ObjectivesTo compare 2‐year outcomes (mortality, mortality/myocardial infarction (MI), target vessel PCI (TVPCI), and target lesion PCI (TLPCI)) for patients receiving EES and ZES.BackgroundThe utilization of drug‐eluting coronary stents (DES) among patients undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) has increased dramatically in the last decade. Everolimus‐eluting stents (EES) and ENDEAVOR zotarolimus eluting stents (ZES) constitute the latest generation of approved DES in the United States, but little is known about their relative effectiveness.MethodsNew York patients undergoing EES and ZES revascularization without any other type of stent between 7/08 and 12/08 were propensity matched at the hospital level using multiple patient, operator, and hospital characteristics, and matched patients were followed through the end of 2010 to obtain comparative 2‐year outcomes.ResultsA total of 3286 patients were propensity‐matched. Patients receiving EES had a significantly lower TVPCI rate (9.0% vs. 11.9%, AHR = 1.31, 95% CI (1.04, 1.65)) and a significantly lower TLPCI rate (6.0% vs. 8.3%, AHR = 1.35, 95% CI (1.02, 1.79)). There was no significant difference between EES and ZES for mortality or MI/mortality.ConclusionsThere were no significant differences in the hard endpoints of death or MI between patients who received EES versus those who received ZES (ENDEAVOR). Patients with EES experienced lower repeat revascularization rates than patients with ZES at 24 months. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The antihypertensive influence of fish oil is controversial, and the mechanisms remain unclear. Because the inverse relation between fish oil and hypertension appears to be partially dependent on the degree of hypertension, we tested the hypothesis that fish oil would elicit more dramatic reductions in mean arterial pressure (MAP) and muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) in prehypertensive (PHT) compared with normotensive (NT) subjects. Resting MAP, MSNA, and heart rate (HR) were examined before and after 8 wk of fish oil (9 g/day; 1.6 g eicosapentaenoic acid and 1.1 g docosahexaenoic acid) or placebo (olive oil; 9 g/day) in 38 NT (19 fish oil; 19 placebo) and 29 PHT (15 fish oil; 14 placebo) volunteers. Fish oil did not alter resting MAP, MSNA, or HR in either NT (80 ± 1 to 80 ± 1 mmHg; 11 ± 2 to 10 ± 1 bursts/min; 71 ± 2 to 71 ± 2 beats/min) or PHT (88 ± 2 to 87 ± 1 mmHg; 11 ± 2 to 10 ± 2 bursts/min; 73 ± 2 to 73 ± 2 beats/min) subjects. When NT and PHT groups were consolidated, analysis of covariance confirmed that pretreatment resting MAP was not associated with changes in MSNA after fish oil. In contrast, pretreatment resting HR was correlated with changes in MSNA ( r = 0.47; P = 0.007) and MAP ( r = 0.42; P < 0.007) after fish oil but not placebo. In conclusion, fish oil did not alter sympathetic neural control in NT or PHT subjects. However, our findings suggest that fish oil is associated with modest sympathoinhibition in individuals with higher resting heart rates, a finding that is consistent with a recent meta-analysis examining the relations among fish oil, HR, and the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Background— Left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (DD) is common after myocardial infarction (MI) despite preservation of left ventricular ejection fraction, yet it remains unclear how or whether DD affects cardiac hemodynamics with stress. Methods and Results— Invasive hemodynamic exercise testing was performed in 46 patients with a recent MI and left ventricular ejection fraction >45% and in 10 healthy volunteers. MI patients were enrolled prospectively and divided into those with DD (MI+DD; left atrial volume index >34 mL/m 2 and diastolic E/e′ ratio>8; n=35) and those without DD (MI–DD; left atrial volume index <34 mL/m 2 and E/e′ ratio<8; n=11). All underwent a supine cycle ergometer test with simultaneous right heart catheterization and echocardiography. At rest, 10 patients in MI+DD (29%) had pulmonary capillary wedge pressure >15 (14±4 mm Hg), whereas none of the MI−DD (10±2 mm Hg) or controls (9±2 mm Hg) displayed pulmonary capillary wedge pressure elevation ( P =0.03). During exercise, an abnormal rise in pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (>25 mm Hg) was observed in 94% of MI+DD (36±6 mm Hg) compared with 36% of MI−DD (24±6 mm Hg) and none of the controls (16±6 mm Hg; P <0.0001). Exercise right atrial pressure was the highest in MI+DD followed by MI−DD and control (15±5 versus 9±4 versus 7±5 mm Hg; P <0.001), whereas no difference in cardiac index was found between groups. Conclusions— In post-MI patients with preserved ejection fraction and left ventricular DD, cardiac output with exercise is maintained at the expense of substantially increased filling pressure. DD and loss of diastolic reserve may promote progression from stage B to stage C heart failure after MI. (Circ Heart Fail. 2012;5:-451.)

OBJECTIVE Stroke symptoms among individuals reporting no physician diagnosis of stroke are associated with an increased risk of future stroke. Few studies have assessed whether individuals with diabetes or prediabetes, but no physician diagnosis of stroke, have an increased prevalence of stroke symptoms. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This study included 25,696 individuals aged ≥45 years from the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) study who reported no history of stroke or transient ischemic attack at baseline (2003–2007). Glucose measurements, medication use, and self-reported physician diagnosis were used to categorize participants into diabetes, prediabetes, or normal glycemia groups. The presence of six stroke symptoms was assessed using a validated questionnaire. RESULTS The prevalence of any stroke symptom was higher among participants with diabetes (22.7%) compared with those with prediabetes (15.6%) or normal glycemia (14.9%). In multivariable models, diabetes was associated with any stroke symptom (prevalence odds ratio [POR] 1.28 [95% CI 1.18–1.39]) and two or more stroke symptoms (1.26 [1.12–1.43]) compared with normal glycemia. In analyses of individual stroke symptoms, diabetes was associated with numbness (1.15 [1.03–1.29]), vision loss (1.52 [1.31–1.76]), half-vision loss (1.54 [1.30–1.84]), and lost ability to understand people (1.34 [1.12–1.61]) after multivariable adjustment. No association was present between prediabetes and stroke symptoms. CONCLUSIONS In this population-based study, almost one in four individuals with diabetes reported stroke symptoms, which suggests that screening for stroke symptoms in diabetes may be warranted.

OBJECTIVE Hypoglycemia is a cause of significant morbidity among patients with diabetes and may be associated with greater risk of death. We conducted a retrospective study to determine whether patient self-report of severe hypoglycemia is associated with increased mortality. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Adult patients (N = 1,020) seen in a specialty diabetes clinic between August 2005 and July 2006 were questioned about frequency of hypoglycemia during a preencounter interview; 7 were lost to follow-up and excluded from analysis. Mild hypoglycemia was defined as symptoms managed without assistance, and severe hypoglycemia was defined as symptoms requiring external assistance. Mortality data, demographics, clinical characteristics, and Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) were obtained from the electronic medical record after 5 years. Patients were stratified by self-report of hypoglycemia at baseline, demographics were compared using the two-sample t test, and risk of death was expressed as odds ratio (95% CI). Associations were controlled for age, sex, diabetes type and duration, CCI, HbA1c, and report of severe hypoglycemia. RESULTS In total, 1,013 patients with type 1 (21.3%) and type 2 (78.7%) diabetes were questioned about hypoglycemia. Among these, 625 (61.7%) reported any hypoglycemia, and 76 (7.5%) reported severe hypoglycemia. After 5 years, patients who reported severe hypoglycemia had 3.4-fold higher mortality (95% CI 1.5–7.4; P = 0.005) compared with those who reported mild/no hypoglycemia. CONCLUSIONS Self-report of severe hypoglycemia is associated with 3.4-fold increased risk of death. Patient-reported outcomes, including patient-reported hypoglycemia, may therefore augment risk stratification and disease management of patients with diabetes.

Abstract Biomarkers are critical to targeted therapies, as they may identify patients more likely to benefit from a treatment. Several prospective designs for biomarker-directed therapy have been previously proposed, differing primarily in the study population, randomization scheme, or both. Recognizing the need for randomization, yet acknowledging the possibility of promising but inconclusive results after a stage I cohort of randomized patients, we propose a 2-stage phase II design on marker-positive patients that allows for direct assignment in a stage II cohort. In stage I, marker-positive patients are equally randomized to receive experimental treatment or control. Stage II has the option to adopt “direct assignment” whereby all patients receive experimental treatment. Through simulation, we studied the power and type I error rate of our design compared with a balanced randomized two-stage design, and conducted sensitivity analyses to study the effect of timing of stage I analysis, population shift effects, and unbalanced randomization. Our proposed design has minimal loss in power (&lt;1.8%) and increased type I error rate (&lt;2.1%) compared with a balanced randomized design. The maximum increase in type I error rate in the presence of a population shift was between 3.1% and 5%, and the loss in power across possible timings of stage I analysis was less than 1.2%. Our proposed design has desirable statistical properties with potential appeal in practice. The direct assignment option, if adopted, provides for an “extended confirmation phase” as an alternative to stopping the trial early for evidence of efficacy in stage I. Clin Cancer Res; 18(16); 4225–33. ©2012 AACR.

AbstractGiven the rapidly rising healthcare costs, it is important to understand the economic costs of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), a procedure that is being used more frequently in the treatment of various hematologic disorders. Studies have reported a wide range of costs for HCT, from $36 000 to $88 000 (USD) for a single autologous transplantation for the initial hospitalization, to $200 000 (USD) or more for a myeloablative allogeneic procedure involving an unrelated donor. Common posttransplantation complications, such as infections and GVHD, have been shown to be significant cost drivers. Comparisons across studies are limited by differences in patient populations, cost ascertainment methods, and length of follow-up. This article summarizes the current state of knowledge about costs and cost-effectiveness of HCT, highlighting the challenges in conducting these studies and identifying important areas for future research. We discuss the need for more value-based assessments of HCT using high-quality approaches to measuring costs and outcomes so that potential future efforts to contain costs are well informed and appropriate.

Abstract We performed a meta-analysis of 3 genome-wide association studies to identify additional common variants influencing chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) risk. The discovery phase was composed of genome-wide association study data from 1121 cases and 3745 controls. Replication analysis was performed in 861 cases and 2033 controls. We identified a novel CLL risk locus at 6p21.33 (rs210142; intronic to the BAK1 gene, BCL2 antagonist killer 1; P = 9.47 × 10−16). A strong relationship between risk genotype and reduced BAK1 expression was shown in lymphoblastoid cell lines. This finding provides additional support for polygenic inheritance to CLL and provides further insight into the biologic basis of disease development.

AbstractIn the present study, we investigated disease characteristics and clinical outcome in young patients (< 40 years) with World Health Organization (WHO)–defined essential thrombocythemia (ET) compared with early/prefibrotic primary myelofibrosis (PMF) with presenting thrombocythemia. We recruited 213 young patients (median age, 33.6 years), ncluding 178 patients (84%) with WHO-defined ET and 35 patients (16%) showing early PMF. Median follow-up time was 7.5 years. A trend for more overall thrombotic complications, particularly arterial, was seen in early PMF compared with ET. Progression to overt myelofibrosis was 3% in ET and 9% in early PMF, but no transformation into acute leukemia was observed. Combining all adverse events (thrombosis, bleeding, and myelofibrosis), the rate was significantly different (1.29% vs 3.43% of patients/year, P = .01) in WHO-ET and early PMF, respectively. In multivariate analysis, early PMF and the JAK2V617F mutation emerged as independent factors predicting cumulative adverse events.