‘She Was Cussing Us Up One Side and Down the Other’: What We Heard This Week

“She was cussing us up one side and down the other.” — Nick Wright, DO, of Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in Roanoke, recounting a patient who became surprisingly combative during CPR compressions.

“It’s time all politicians or political candidates have their physicians reveal their full unredacted medical records annually as a prerequisite for entering office.” — S. Jay Olshansky, PhD, of the University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health, discussing the sparse health updates since Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) hospitalization.

“They got a rather clear difference between drug and control.” — Alan Schatzberg, MD, of Stanford Medicine in California, on a small trial that showed adjunctive ketamine outperformed midazolam for treatment-resistant bipolar depression.

“I fear for the survival of this once admirable institution.” — David Nathan, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, reacting to the American Diabetes Association’s review of the events of when five researchers were removed from its annual meeting.

“Every way, shape, or form you look at this there was benefit.” — Ahmad Masri, MD, of Oregon Health & Science University Medical Group in Portland, discussing results from a trial of aficamten (Myqorzo) in symptomatic nonobstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

“There just aren’t enough hours in the day.” — Alexandra Hajduk, PhD, MPH, of Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, on the unrealistic expectation for medical students to publish dozens of peer-reviewed papers during training.

“This agent has a good chance, really a very good chance, of being game-changing in the clinic.” — Gerald Watts, MD, PhD, of the University of Western Australia in Perth, after a pair of phase III trials showed plozasiran (Redemplo) significantly lowered triglycerides in severe hypertriglyceridemia.

“These patients are all really miserable, so I think it’s really going to be a great advance.” — Victoria Werth, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, on the potential of brepocitinib (Lisraya), a selective TYK2/JAK1 inhibitor, to relieve dermatomyositis symptoms.

“This is a study that, in some ways, challenges the currently popular ‘strike early and strike strong’ concept.” — Davide Capodanno, MD, PhD, of the University of Catania in Italy, on trial data showing no immediate clinical benefit from starting PCSK9 inhibitors in the cath lab during a heart attack.