Antman, Libby among ACC Headliners
BWH had a significant presence in March during the American College of Cardiology’s annual scientific session in Atlanta. The latest research from the TIMI trials was released, several BWH cardiologists lent their voices and expertise to major discussions and one BWH faculty member received a distinguished recognition.
Elliott Antman, MD, director of BWH’s Samuel A. Levine Cardiac Unit, presented findings detailing a better, more effective blood thinning strategy for patients who suffer an acute heart attack. Antman presented findings from the ExTRACT-TIMI 25 (Enoxaparin and Thrombosis Reperfusion for Acute Myocardial Infarction Treatment - Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction) trial in an early release of his paper to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“The results of this trial are dramatic and significant; a strategy using enoxaparin prevents more patients from dying or having a second heart attack within 30 days of treatment compared to the strategy using unfractionated heparin, which up to now has been considered the standard blood thinner regimen used to support fibrinolytic therapy,” said Antman, who was elected to the ACC’s Board of Trustees during the Atlanta session.
In addition to the stir the TIMI findings made during the ACC’s science session, Peter Libby, MD, BWH’s chief of Cardiovascular Medicine, received the ACC’s Distinguished Scientist Award in the basic domain. This award is bestowed annually to an ACC member who has made major scientific contributions to the advancement of scientific knowledge in the field of cardiovascular disease.
Libby’s latest contribution came during the ACC scientific sessions, too, as an investigator with the ASTEROID study, which was presented during the ACC and published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Aggressive statin therapy with Crestor (rosuvastatin) can lower dramatically LDL levels, or so-called bad cholesterol, raise good cholesterol, or HDL, by an unprecedented amount and partially reverse coronary artery plaques volume, according to ASTEROID findings.
“This new study is the first to show actual shrinkage of fatty plaque in the coronary arteries of atherosclerotic patients,” Libby said. ASTEROID was a prospective, open-label trial with blinded endpoints performed with 349 patients over more than two years.