Adherence to a “Southern diet” may be the biggest driver of racial disparities in hypertension rates among black and white adults in the U.S., according to a prospective cohort study published Oct. 2 in JAMA.

A machine learning tool developed by researchers at Michigan State University can accurately predict an individual’s height within an inch and may offer more precise CVD and cancer risk assessment in the future, according to a report featured this month in Genetics.

Sanjiv Kaul, MD, director of the Knight Cardiovascular Institute at Oregon Health and Science University, announced he’ll be stepping down from his leadership role by the end of this year following the disassembly of the university’s heart transplant team a month ago. Kaul is expected to remain at OHSU, but will focus solely on research. 

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) was easily the treatment of choice in German patients with severe stenosis at intermediate surgical risk from 2012 to 2014, according to a registry study, with both TAVR and surgical AVR (SAVR) carrying a 3.6 percent risk of in-hospital mortality.

Women who suffer from peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) will likely be clinically asymptomatic seven years after they give birth, according to research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association Oct. 3—but it’s also likely they’ll develop enduring diastolic dysfunction and reduced exercise capacity in the same window.

Fractional flow reserve (FFR) can be closely approximated using conventional coronary angiography and propriety software, according to the FAST-FFR study published online in Circulation. The findings offer a potential route for more patients with suspected coronary artery disease to receive functional assessment of lesions without the need for a guidewire or hyperemic agents.

The consequences of sexual harassment and assault—the former of which up to 81 percent of women say they’ve experienced at some point in their lifetime—aren’t just mental, according to a study presented at the North American Menopause Society symposium in San Diego. They’re also physical, putting women at a higher risk for hypertension and sleep disorders.

RIDGEFIELD, Conn. and INDIANAPOLIS, Oct. 4, 2018 — Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) announced today that empagliflozin met the primary efficacy endpoint, defined as a change from baseline in A1C versus placebo after 26 weeks of treatment, for all doses investigated (2.5, 10 and 25 mg) in the Empagliflozin as Adjunctive to inSulin thErapy (EASE) Phase III program in adults with type 1 diabetes.

The Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) has successfully slashed readmissions for heart failure, acute MI (AMI) and pneumonia without causing mortality increases, according to an analysis of Medicare data published in JAMA Network Open. But the author of an accompanying editorial isn’t convinced the results are so positive.

The American Heart Association and Joint Commission have merged their separate cardiac accreditation programs to offer a single joint certification starting Jan. 1, 2019, the organizations announced this week.