Clinical Cardiology
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Wine Consumption and Cardiovascular Health
A case-cohort subgroup of the PREDIMED study of older Mediterranean subjects at high cardiovascular disease risk, which used urinary tartaric acid to quantitate wine consumption, has shown over an almost five-year follow-up that light to moderate wine consumption was associated with a significant reduction in cardiovascular disease events.
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Combustible vs. Electronic Cigarettes Post-PCI
A large, nationwide South Korean study of smokers undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) has shown that electronic cigarette use and smoking cessation resulted in similarly lower subsequent major adverse cardiac events compared to continued smoking.
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Cardiovascular Risk with mRNA COVID Vaccines
A large, nationwide population study in Sweden of the risk of adverse cardiovascular events after messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccinations has shown that, except for rare cases of myopericarditis, severe cardiovascular events, such as myocardial infarction, heart failure, and stroke, are reduced, probably because of the prevention of COVID infection.
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Indications for Bioprosthetic vs. Mechanical Aortic Valve Replacement
A large U.S. database study comparing mechanical vs. bioprostheses for surgical aortic valve replacement in patients 40 to 75 years of age has shown that all-cause mortality is reduced with a mechanical valve in those age 60 years or younger.
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POPular PAUSE TAVI Trial Supports Interrupting Oral Anticoagulation Before TAVR in Patients with Afib
In this investigator-initiated, open-label trial, continuing oral anticoagulation leading up to a transcatheter aortic valve replacement procedure led to more bleeding and no reduction in thromboembolic events compared with interrupting anticoagulation.
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Echocardiographic Estimation of Left Atrial Pressure in Atrial Fibrillation Patients
A study of patients undergoing catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation with periprocedural echocardiograms and directly measured left atrial pressure (LAP) has shown that mean LAP can be estimated with a high degree of accuracy by a hierarchical algorithm using three Doppler echocardiographic parameters.
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Arrhythmias in the Holiday Heart Syndrome
A small study of continuous electrocardiogram and breath alcohol concentration in young volunteers during acute excessive alcohol consumption has shown that heart rate and ventricular premature beats increased during the drinking period. During recovery (six to 19 hours), significant arrhythmias such as atrial fibrillation occured in 5% of the subjects. The observed changes in heart rate variability and breath alcohol concentration suggest that these effects are the result of increased sympathetic nervous system activity associated with excess blood alcohol concentrations.
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Catheter Ablation for Ischemic Ventricular Tachycardia
A multicenter, randomized trial of initial catheter ablation vs. antiarrhythmic drug therapy for ventricular tachycardia in ischemic cardiomyopathy patients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator resulted in fewer subsequent ventricular tachycardia episodes with ablation.
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Antiplatelet Therapy for Coronary Stent Patients Undergoing Noncardiac Surgery
A larger randomized controlled trial of aspirin monotherapy vs. no antiplatelet therapy in patients more than one year post-drug-eluting coronary stent placement failed to show a difference in ischemic outcomes or major bleeding, but minor bleeding was more common in the aspirin group.
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Angiography-Based QFR Analysis Falls Short Compared with FFR
In this large, multicenter, randomized trial, use of the angiography-based quantitative flow ratio method to guide revascularization of intermediate coronary stenoses resulted in a higher incidence of major adverse cardiac events at one year compared with pressure wire-based fractional flow reserve.