By Dr Sarah Hudson (@sarahhudsonUK) On January 9th 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) released a statement regarding a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China caused by a novel coronavirus (1). Under 9 weeks later there were more than 118,000 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by this novel coronavirus, in 114 countries (2). […]
Category: General cardiology
British Heart Foundation’s £30 million Big Beat Challenge
The British Heart Foundation (BHF) has recently launched a new single £30 million research award: ‘The Big Beat Challenge’. This challenge aims to fund “the world’s greatest minds tackling the world’s biggest killers”. The BHF is already the largest independent charity funder of cardiovascular research in the U.K, and is hoping with this substantial award […]
Heart’s Twitter Journal Club
Join in our Journal Club on Twitter and engage with readers from across the world! Each month we will discuss a paper from Heart. We will select a recent paper ahead of time and then discuss four different aspects of it for about 15 minutes each. The paper under discussion will be free to access for a week […]
Revascularization in response to identification of elevated high sensitivity troponin in stable patients does not improve outcomes
Among patients presenting with an acute coronary syndrome, cardiac troponin assays are the standard method for the identification of patients at high risk who benefit from early revascularization. With advances in technology, high-sensitivity troponin (hsTn) assays are now available to identify levels of circulating troponin that were previously undetectable. In this study, the authors sought […]
Leadless pacemakers demonstrate promise
Approximately 10% of patients who receive a pacemaker experience complications related to the use of transvenous leads, the surgical pocket, or the pulse generator. A leadless pacemaker inserted in the right ventricle by way of a transvenous catheter may result in lower complication rates. These leadless pacemakers include electronics, battery, and electrodes all in a […]
A reversal agent for dabigatran
Unlike warfarin, non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants lack reversal agents for administration in the case of severe bleeding or perioperative management. Idarucizumab is a monoclonal antibody fragment that was developed to reverse the anticoagulant effects of the direct thrombin inhibitor dabigatran. In this safety and efficacy study, idarucizumab was tested in a cohort of patients […]
Informed Decision Making for Percutaneous Coronary Intervention for Stable Coronary Disease
Prior studies suggest patients are often misinformed about the anticipated benefits of PCI for stable coronary disease. However, there is little data on patient-provider discussions that may explain discrepancies in patient understanding about the limited benefits of PCI in this setting. Rothberg and colleagues performed a cross-sectional analysis of 59 conversations between providers and patients […]
Lipid lowering drugs and risk of vascular events in older patients
Although elderly patients are at higher risk of cardiovascular events, the majority cardiovascular trials exclude these patients. Accordingly, little is known about the use of lipid lowering medications for prevention of cardiovascular events in elderly populations. This prospective cohort study evaluated the association between use of statins or fibrates for prevention of vascular events among […]
Investigating chest pain: anatomy or function?
Among patients with chest pain, it is unclear if anatomic assessment of coronary obstruction or functional assessment with stress testing leads to better patient outcomes. In this randomized controlled trial of 10,003 symptomatic patients, individuals were randomly assigned in a 1:1 fashion to either anatomical testing with coronary CT angiography (CTA) or to functional testing […]
Antiplatelet therapy in long-term risk reduction after myocardial infarction
The activated platelet is central to development of ischemic cardiovascular events. Guidelines recommend treatment with a P2Y12 receptor antagonist for 1-year after myocardial infarction (MI) to reduce the risk of recurrent events. The PEGASUS trial sought to determine the impact of using the P2Y12 antagonist ticagrelor as part of long-term therapy after MI. In this […]