Cardiovascular Clinical Trials Putting the Evidence into Practice

The pace of therapeutic advances in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases is rapid, and new clinically-relevant information appears with such frequency that it can be extremely challenging for clinicians to keep up.

Still, knowledge and interpretation of major clinical trials is crucial for the range of clinicians who manage cardiovascular patients, especially since important trial evidence often needs to be implemented soon after it is published.

Confidently apply gold standard treatment for 10 of the most critical areas of cardiology
Written by an international team of experts, Cardiovascular Clinical Trials: Putting the Evidence into Practice:

• Provides a succinct overview of recent major clinical trials - the gold standard for all medical treatment - across all the major cardiovascular subspecialties, to ensure you?re up-to-date on the most critical findings
• Guides cardiology trainees and clinicians on how cardiovascular clinical trials are designed and conducted, including statistical methodology, so you can conduct and/or appraise future trials yourself
• Addresses methodology as well as clinical effectiveness
• Offers evidence-based assessments on the most effective treatments and authoritative clinical information on management of the conditions so you can confidently apply what you learn

Physicians, surgeons, specialist nurses ? any clinician seeking an accessible resource for designing and conducting cardiovascular trials and then translating their results into practice will appreciate this book?s clear guidance and succinct and practical approach.

List of Contributors viii

Preface x

List of Abbreviations xi

1 Introduction to randomized clinical trials in cardiovascular disease 1
Tobias Geisler, Marcus D. Flather, Deepak L. Bhatt, and Ralph B. D’Agostino, Sr

2 Publishing results of clinical trials and reviewing papers for publication 44
Tobias Geisler and Marcus D. Flather

3 Management of chronic coronary artery disease 60
Sabu Thomas and William E. Boden

4 Acute coronary syndromes (ST elevation and non-ST elevation) 86
Tobias Geisler, Deepak L. Bhatt, and Marcus D. Flather

5 Heart failure 117
Christopher M. O’Connor and Wendy Gattis Stough

6 Atrial fibrillation 143
Chee W. Khoo and Gregory Y.H. Lip

7 Electrophysiology and pacing 174
Irina Suman-Horduna and Sabine Ernst

8 Percutaneous coronary intervention 205
Dharam J. Kumbhani and Deepak L. Bhatt

9 Randomized controlled trials in cardiac surgery: is there any alternative? 243
Thanos Athanasiou, Amir Sepehripour, and John Pepper

10 Adult congenital heart disease 274
Cary Ward, J. Kevin Harrison, and Thomas M. Bashore

11 Cardiac imaging 296
Aiden Abidov and Daniel S. Berman

12 Prevention of cardiovascular disease 345
Alice J. Owen and Christopher M. Reid

Index 378

Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, FACC, FSCAI, FESC, FACP
Associate Director, Cleveland Clinic Cardiovascular Coordinating Center
Staff, Cardiac, Peripheral, and Carotid Intervention
Associate Professor of Medicine
Department of Cardiovascular Medicine
Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Cleveland, OH, USA