Breast cancer remains the commonest cancer in women with approximately 1 million new cases diagnosed annually. However, survival rates have increased year-on-year with 5 year disease free survival as high as 90% in women in whom the tumour is diagnosed early. Large numbers of cancer survivors are therefore present in the population – an estimated [...]

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFPEF) is now felt to be the most common form of heart failure in the community, and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Currently, effective therapies are needed as trials of traditional renin-angiotensin antagonists have failed to show an improvement in outcomes or clinical status. Experimental work has [...]

Although bleeding following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has previously been linked with short- and long-term mortality, this association was derived from highly selected randomised controlled trials. This large study used the CathPCI registry to estimate the adjusted population attributable risk of bleeding-related mortality in patients undergoing PCI in the United States. 3 386 688 procedures in the [...]

The anatomical SYNTAX score is advocated in both US and European guidelines to help establish the best revascularisation approach in patients with complex coronary artery disease.  The purpose of this study was to improve the SYNTAX score further by including prognostically important clinical variables, as opposed to the anatomical variables that are used for the [...]

It is known that smoking cessation substantially reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), but does any subsequent weight gain attenuate the benefits of quitting smoking?  The goal of this study was to answer this question in adults with and without diabetes.  Specifically, the authors tested the hypothesis that quitting smoking decreases CVD risk compared [...]

Approximately a third of patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) will develop intermittent claudication.  A previous pilot trial found that the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor ramipril is associated with increased pain-free and maximum walking times, contrasting with previous ACE inhibitor studies which may have been limited by issues of small sample size, short intervention duration, and [...]

Following cardiac surgical operations, blood transfusions are associated with a host of complications, including nosocomial infections, immunosuppression, transfusion-related acute lung injury, decreased health-related quality of life, and reduced early and long-term survival. A number of guidelines now emphasise the importance of conservative transfusion strategies and in this study, Lapar et al examine the impact of [...]

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HF-PEF) accounts for more than 50% of heart failure cases. To date, medical therapy has failed to show improvements in diastolic dysfunction, cardiac remodelling, or cardiovascular outcomes. As mineralocorticoid receptor activation by aldosterone contributes to the pathophysiology of HF through several different mechanisms, the Aldosterone Receptor Blockade in Diastolic [...]

The risk of cardiovascular death in patients with chronic kidney disease is increased by a factor of ten in comparison with the general population. While a host of factors including chronic inflammation, increased oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction contribute to this risk, disorders of mineral metabolism, including secondary hyperparathyroidism, are thought to contribute by promoting [...]