In clinic today, I saw an 85 year old woman with Parkinson’s disease for follow-up of her high blood pressure. Her pressures have been difficult to control.

Today her BP is 170/80 with a heart rate of 62 bpm. She is taking an ACEi and a beta-blocker. Her daughter supervises the administration of her medications. She has no known history of heart disease or stroke, and mild renal disease which has been stable. Her EKG shows left ventricular hypertrophy.

As is well known, although restriction of diet often results in initial weight loss, more than 80 per cent of obese dieters fail to maintain their reduced weight.

A new study from Australia involved 50 overweight or obese patients without diabetes in a 10-week weight-loss program using a very-low-energy diet. Levels of appetite-regulating hormones were measured at baseline, at the end of the program and one year after initial weight loss.

In this study, the authors analyzed the combined results of four different randomized clinical trials, comparing PCI with CABG in the treatment of Left Main CAD.

Comparing MACCE (major adverse cardiac or cerebrovascular events) they found “nonsignificantly different 1-year rates of MACCE” between the two treatment modalities after 12 months (14.5% vs. 11.8%, P value 0.11).

The studies included were: