Spironolactone early after stroke, in a small trial. The REDUCE trial, presented as an abstract at the American Heart Association meeting and not yet published in a journal, tested giving the cheap diuretic spironolactone immediately after a stroke, rather than reserving it for patients who have failed three other drugs. Patients on spironolactone were more likely than those receiving usual post stroke care to have blood pressure below 130/80 mm Hg three months later, STAT reported. The trial was small and measured a blood pressure target, not clinical events, so it is a prescribing hypothesis alongside the OPTIMAL-STROKE result in today’s edition, not evidence of fewer recurrent strokes.
Yoga based rehabilitation in heart failure. The Yoga-CaRe HF trial, run in India and summarised by the American College of Cardiology from the AHA late breaking session, tested a yoga based cardiac rehabilitation programme against enhanced standard care in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. Over a follow up of approximately 15 months the programme produced improvements in quality of life, exercise capacity and quality adjusted utility values. The ACC summary available to this run reports the direction of the results rather than event rates, so the item is carried as a notable programme result, not as outcomes evidence.
A first limited market veterinary authorisation in the EU. The European Medicines Agency’s Committee for Veterinary Medicinal Products, meeting November 3 to 5, adopted a positive opinion for Scovella (velagliflozin), for reducing hyperinsulinaemia and the associated risk of laminitis in horses with equine metabolic syndrome, after re-examination of its June 2026 opinion. The EMA notes Scovella is the first veterinary product the committee has recommended under the limited market framework since Regulation (EU) 2019/6 took effect in 2022, a route that allows authorisation on customised documentation where the market is small. The committee also adopted the fifth joint inter agency report on antimicrobial consumption and resistance in humans and food producing animals (JIACRA V), which adds environmental data and analyses 2022 to 2024 trends; it will be published on December 10, 2026.