"In Sweden we tell patients after the cath lab ... it is like [soccer]: you have received a yellow card and, OK, you can go back in the game ... but you get a second yellow card and you are out of the game." -- Joep Perk, MD, at the European Society of Cardiology meeting giving advice on how to keep patients motivated.
"This has been the worst organized ESC meeting in decades." -- E. Magnus Ohman, MD, sounding off about the ESC meeting in Rome.
"PSCK9 inhibitors currently fill a therapeutic niche, which include patients with high cardiovascular risk such as familial hypercholesterolemia; clinical atherosclerotic disease; or statin-intolerant patients who are not able to achieve the desired LDL cholesterol level." -- Eliano Navarese, MD, PhD, of INOVA Health Care in Falls Church, Va., supporting the use of PSCK9 inhibitors.
"The benefits for the patients in terms of a major extension of life and a halving of new cardiovascular complications speak for themselves." -- Hans-Henrik Parving, MD, of National University Hospital in Copenhagen, on an intensive, multipart intervention for patients with type 2 diabetes.
"The insurance companies are willing the battle, but they won't win the war. Our clinical experience now is that appropriate patients are being denied for seemingly inappropriate reasons; it has been too restrictive." -- Christopher Cannon, MD, of Brigham & Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School in Boston, on his group's modeling study that advocated PSCK9 add-on therapy for achieving ideal LDL cholesterol goals in some patients.
"You look after the heart. How much symbolism is enshrined in this word! How many hopes are contained in this human organ! In your hands you hold the beating core of the human body, and as such your responsibility is very great!' -- Pope Francis, speaking to cardiologists in Rome at the European Society of Cardiology annual meeting.
"Detailing by the pharmaceutical companies of their combination products in preference to their inhaled corticosteroid products without the [long-acting beta agonist] to primary care physicians tends to encourage the inappropriate practice of beginning patients on the combination, which is inconstant with FDA and physician expert recommendations." -- Miles Weinberger, MD, of University of Iowa, on a trial examining the safety of Advair in kids.
"These results challenge the notion that current prognostic scoring systems are equally effective in their application over time [dynamic ability] for low-risk and high-risk patients, and underscores the importance of continued research to refine and optimize these tools for clinical application." -- Hetty Carraway, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic, commenting on a study of the performance of myelodysplastic syndromes scoring systems over time.