When More Isn't Better: Questioning the Efficacy of Common Cardiovascular Treatments

Host: Janet Wright, MD Guest: Robert Harrington, MD Recent studies have raised doubts about the efficacy of some common treatments for cardiovascular disease, including: the use of PFO closures (based on the CLOSURE trial); some methods of cardiac resynchronization therapy (or CRT, based on the SMART-AV trial); telemonitoring for patients with congestive heart failure (based on the Tele-HF trial); and doubling the dose of clopidogrel in patients who had a poor response to the drug after percutaneous coronary intervention (based on the GRAVITAS trial). Dr. Robert Harrington, director of the Duke Clinical Research Institute at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, reviews the evidence in each of these trials, and gauges the clinical impact of their findings. Dr. Janet Wright hosts. Produced in Cooperation with