CARDIOPROGRESS
Foundation for the advancement of cardiology

Treat to LDL Target or High-Intensity Statin for All With Clinical CAD: LODESTAR How secondary prevention statins are given to push LDL cholesterol levels lower, whether in a high-intensity statin regimen or by dosage titration to meet LDL targets, may make little difference to clinical outcomes, suggests a randomized trial.

Sports-Related Sudden Cardiac Arrest 'Extremely' Rare in Women Sports-related sudden cardiac arrest (Sr-SCA) appears to be extremely rare in women compared with men, despite similar characteristics and circumstances of occurrence, data from three European population-based registries suggest.

Oral PCSK9 Inhibitor Shows Encouraging LDL Lowering A new oral formulation of a PCSK9-inhibitor, cholesterol-lowering drug in development by Merck has shown encouraging results in a phase 2 study. The study was presented by Christie Ballantyne, MD, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas at the recent American College of Cardiology (ACC) Scientific Session/World Congress of Cardiology (WCC) 2023.

Cardiovascular Risk Factors Rife in Argentine Cardiologists Despite cardiologists' knowledge about cardiovascular disease and risk factors, they have a high prevalence of these risk factors. This observation suggests poor working conditions for cardiologists of both sexes and a high prevalence of workplace gender violence for female cardiologists, according to a study conducted by the Argentine Society of Cardiology (SAC).

New Tool Better Estimates Cardiovascular Risk in People With Lupus A tool that incorporates lupus-related variables with traditional risk factors provides a much more accurate assessment of cardiovascular (CV) risk in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), according to data presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Rheumatology Association.

Dapagliflozin Gets Expanded Heart Failure Indication in Europe The European Commission (EC) has expanded the indication for dapagliflozin (Forxiga) to include heart failure (HF) across the full spectrum of left ventricular ejection fraction — including HF with mildly reduced and preserved ejection fraction, AstraZeneca has announced.

Cath Ablation for AF No Less Safe, Effective in Cancer Patients Catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation (AF) is effective and safe in patients with a history of cancer and those receiving cardiotoxic therapies. The ablation success rate in patients with cancer was similar to that observed in patients without cancer.

It’s not just what we eat, but why we eat that’s important for heart health The study found that emotional eating was associated with cardiovascular problems, and that stress contributed to this relationship.

Very Hot, Very Cold Days Tied to Higher CVD Mortality Extremely hot and extremely cold temperatures were associated with a greater risk of cardiovascular mortality in an analysis of data from countries around the world.

Mortality After Acute Stroke Worsened by Accompanying Acute AF Acute atrial fibrillation (AF) is an independent predictor of severity of neurological deficits from early acute ischemic stroke and a high-probability predictor of death within 30 days after such strokes.

APOE4 May Raise Brain Bleed Risk in Apixaban Users With AF Carriers of the apolipoprotein E epsilon 4 (APOE ε4) allele had a threefold higher risk for intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) when taking apixaban for atrial fibrillation (AF) compared with noncarriers, a new study suggested.

Novel Algorithm Transforms Echocardiographic Assessment of Heart Filling Pressures A new algorithm for estimating left ventricular filling pressure (LVFP) by echocardiography reduced indeterminate results to just two cases compared with 38 using previous guidelines, achieving 86% accuracy in 949 patients, a new study found. The algorithm showed particular improvement for patients with normal left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), while maintaining similar accuracy for cases of reduced LVEF.

Polypill Shows LDL-Lowering Advantage in High-risk Primary Prevention Patients: VULCANO Key Takeaways The CNIC (Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares) polypill contains acetylsalicylic acid (100 mg), atorvastatin (30 mg or 40 mg), and ramipril (2.5 mg, 5 mg, or 10 mg), and is the only polypill for cardiovascular disease (CVD) currently marketed in European countries.

Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2022 Update: A Report From the American Heart Association The American Heart Association, in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health, annually reports the most up-to-date statistics related to heart disease, stroke, and cardiovascular risk factors, including core health behaviors (smoking, physical activity, diet, and weight) and health factors (cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose control) that contribute to cardiovascular health.

The Scientific Committee begins accepting abstracts and applications for the scientific program of the XI International Forum of Cardiology and Internal Medicine Dear Colleagues! We invite you to take part in XI International Forum of Cardiology and Internal Medicine. Forum will take place on 22-24 March 2022 in Moscow (online).

Analysis of the activities of the "Cardioprogress" foundation: results of 2021 Dear colleagues! In 2021, a number of significant events took place in cardiology. Due to the continuation of restrictive measures, most scientific events were organized online. This required adaptation and the acquisition of new skills. However, all planned events took place.

Aspirin is linked with increased risk of heart failure Aspirin use is associated with a 26% raised risk of heart failure in people with at least one predisposing factor for the condition. That’s the finding of a study published today in ESC Heart Failure, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).

Depression worsened during pandemic, boosting heart disease risk, experts warn It may translate into another long-term effect of the coronavirus crisis — more heart disease cases even in people who never had COVID-19 at all. More than one-third of patients studied reported becoming depressed or experiencing continued symptoms of depression during the first year of the pandemic.

Longer Sleep Improves Cardiovascular Outcomes: Time to Make Sleep a Priority Causal diagrams demonstrating potential relationships between genetic causes (G) of sleep duration, sleep duration (S), and a cardiovascular outcome (Y). (A) G is a valid instrumental variable for the relationship of S and Y, and can be used to estimated the S–Y association (orange arrow). (B) G has a pleiotropic association with Y. Because there are no unmeasured confounders (U) of the S–Y association, causal mediation analysis can be used to estimate both the direct (pleiotropic) association of G and Y, and the indirect effect via S. (C) The pleiotropic effect of G on Y can be measured by blocking the pathway through S, which is done by conditioning on levels of S. (D) The effect of S on Y independently of G can be measured by blocking pathways through G and C (measured confounders) by conditioning or using matching methods.

Medscape and ACC Centers of Excellence The ACC has collaborated with Medscape to create two Centers of Excellence on the topics of Cardiovascular Risk Reduction and Heart Failure.