position:cardiologist

Harvard Calls for Retraction of Dozens of Studies by Noted Cardiologist - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/15/health/piero-anversa-fraud-retractions.html

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/10/15/science/15RETRACTIONS1/15FRAUD1-facebookJumbo.jpg

A prominent cardiologist formerly at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston fabricated or falsified data in 31 published studies that should be retracted, officials at the institutions have concluded.

The cardiologist, Dr. Piero Anversa, produced research suggesting that damaged heart muscle could be regenerated with stem cells, a type of cell that can transform itself into a variety of other cells.

Although other laboratories could not reproduce his findings, the work led to the formation of start-up companies to develop new treatments for heart attacks and stroke, and inspired a clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health.

“A couple of papers may be alarming, but 31 additional papers in question is almost unheard-of,” said Benoit Bruneau, associate director of cardiovascular research at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco. “It is a lab’s almost entire body of work, and therefore almost an entire field of research, put into question.”

#Fraude_scientifique #Conflits_intérêt #Science

The rise and fall and rise again of 23andMe : Nature News & Comment
►http://www.nature.com/news/the-rise-and-fall-and-rise-again-of-23andme-1.22801

http://www.nature.com/polopoly_fs/7.46922.1507718105!/image/Wojcicki.jpg_gen/derivatives/nature_homepage/Wojcicki.jpg

23andme has always been the most visible face of direct-to-consumer genetic testing, and it is more formidable now than ever before. In September, the company announced that it had raised US$250 million: more than the total amount of capital raised by the company since its inception. Investors estimate that it is worth more than $1 billion, making it a ’unicorn’ in Silicon Valley parlance — a rare and valuable thing to behold. But for scientists, 23andme’s real worth is in its data. With more than 2 million customers, the company hosts by far the largest collection of gene-linked health data anywhere. It has racked up 80 publications, signed more than 20 partnerships with pharmaceutical firms and started a therapeutics division of its own.

“They have quietly become the largest genetic study the world has ever known,” says cardiologist Euan Ashley at Stanford University, California.

Scientists, meanwhile, were dubious. Family history was and is still a more powerful indicator than genes are for predicting the risk of most diseases. “The evidence is increasingly strong that the benefits of direct-to-consumer testing for these kinds of indications are somewhere between small and zero,” says Stanford University lawyer and ethicist Hank Greely, a long-time critic of the company.

#Génomique #23andme

J’en parlerai à mon cheval • A nurse has heart attack and describes what she...
▻http://mamie-caro.tumblr.com/post/141534265354/a-nurse-has-heart-attack-and-describes-what-she

FEMALE HEART ATTACKS

I was aware that female heart attacks are different, but this is description is so incredibly visceral that I feel like I have an entire new understanding of what it feels like to be living the symptoms on the inside. Women rarely have the same dramatic symptoms that men have… you know, the sudden stabbing pain in the chest, the cold sweat, grabbing the chest & dropping to the floor the we see in movies. Here is the story of one woman’s experience with a heart attack:

"I had a heart attack at about 10:30 PM with NO prior exertion, NO prior emotional trauma that one would suspect might have brought it on. I was sitting all snugly & warm on a cold evening, with my purring cat in my lap, reading an interesting story my friend had sent me, and actually thinking, ‘A-A-h, this is the life, all cozy and warm in my soft, cushy Lazy Boy with my feet propped up. A moment later, I felt that awful sensation of indigestion, when you’ve been in a hurry and grabbed a bite of sandwich and washed it down with a dash of water, and that hurried bite seems to feel like you’ve swallowed a golf ball going down the esophagus in slow motion and it is most uncomfortable. You realize you shouldn’t have gulped it down so fast and needed to chew it more thoroughly and this time drink a glass of water to hasten its progress down to the stomach. This was my initial sensation–the only trouble was that I hadn’t taken a bite of anything since about 5:00 p.m.

After it seemed to subside, the next sensation was like little squeezing motions that seemed to be racing up my SPINE (hind-sight, it was probably my aorta spasms), gaining speed as they continued racing up and under my sternum (breast bone, where one presses rhythmically when administering CPR). This fascinating process continued on into my throat and branched out into both jaws. ‘AHA!! NOW I stopped puzzling about what was happening – we all have read and/or heard about pain in the jaws being one of the signals of an MI happening, haven’t we? I said aloud to myself and the cat, Dear God, I think I’m having a heart attack! I lowered the foot rest dumping the cat from my lap, started to take a step and fell on the floor instead. I thought to myself, If this is a heart attack, I shouldn’t be walking into the next room where the phone is or anywhere else… but, on the other hand, if I don’t, nobody will know that I need help, and if I wait any longer I may not be able to get up in a moment.

Rapid Price Increases for Some Generic Drugs Catch Users by Surprise
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/health/some-generic-drug-prices-are-soaring.html

What the cardiologist did not know then was that the price of generic digoxin was rapidly rising. The three companies selling the drug in the United States had increased the price they charge pharmacies, at least nearly doubling it since late last year, according to EvaluatePharma, a London-based consulting firm.

#pharma #génériques

Boehringer Kept Pradaxa Analysis From #FDA, Records Show
▻http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-25/boehringer-kept-pradaxa-analysis-from-fda-records-show.html

Encore des résultats cachés par une compagnie pharmaceutique.

“Having run an analysis in several ways, there is no good reason not to disclose all the results,” said Harlan Krumholz, a Yale University cardiologist in New Haven, Connecticut, who is leading an effort to get companies and researchers to share their findings fully.

(...)

“It is important to resist selective presentation of results, especially when the finding depends on which analysis is done,” said Krumholz, who isn’t involved in any of the Pradaxa lawsuits, by telephone. “The fact that different analyses of the same data can yield different conclusions makes it imperative that we promote an opportunity for independent analyses through data sharing so that these issues will be out in the open.”

#état_défaillant #failed_state