Clinical

This channel newsfeed includes clinical content on treating patients or the clinical implications in a variety of cardiac subspecialties and disease states. The channel includes news on cardiac surgery, interventional cardiologyheart failure, electrophysiologyhypertension, structural heart disease, use of pharmaceuticals, and COVID-19.   

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Emergency hospital transfer of STEMI patients might be expedited with a hospital-level 'Call 911 protocol'

The AHA Mission: Lifeline Program was designed to reduce STEMI patient transfer times, but response times still often lag, and new protocols may be needed to expedite STAT transfers.

The Medtronic Symplicity Spyral Renal Denervation system uses a catheter that curls in the renal artery to place radiofrequency electrodes against the vessel wall to ablate the nerves that control vasodilation, so the artery can be propped in the fully open position.

SPYRAL HTN-ON MED renal denervation study did not meet primary endpoint

The SPYRAL HTN-ON MED renal denervation trial failed to show that renal denervation was superior to sham control at improving ambulatory blood pressure (ABPM), but that might have been due to patient lifestyle changes during COVID-19.

Brian Lindman, MD, MSCI, medical director of the Structural Heart and Valve Center and an associate professor of medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, explains the new American Heart Association (AHA) Target Aortic Stenosis (AS) program. It was announced at the AHA 2022 meeting and is designed to help screen with echo to find more AS patients.

VIDEO: AHA says aortic stenosis is undertreated and underdiagnosed

Brian Lindman, MD, medical director of the Structural Heart and Valve Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, explains the new American Heart Association (AHA) Target Aortic Stenosis (AS) program to screen with echo to find more AS patients. 

Pulmonary hypertension (PAH) is usually treated with medication, but the more a patient has to pay for medications, the less likely they are to take them and become noncompliant. This was the finding of a new study showing how copayments may be a barrier to patients taking prostanoids and combination therapy for PAH.

Higher copayments lowered adherence for pulmonary artery hypertension medications 

The more a patient has to pay for medications, the less likely they are to take them. This was the finding of a new study showing how copayments may be a barrier to drugs to treat pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Image from the American Heart Association (AHA) annual scientific sessions where a large amount of late-breaking cardiology science is presented. #AHA #AHA22 #AHA2022

Links to the American Heart Association 2022 late-breaking studies

The American Heart Association 2022 Scientific Sessions included 35 late-breaking studies and 39 featured science sessions presented at the meeting in Chicago, Nov. 5-7. Here is the list of all these studies with links to more information on the data.

Late-breaking cardiovascular study presentation at AHA 2022. #AHA22

VIDEO: Key takeaways from AHA 2022

Manesh R. Patel, MD, chair of AHA Scientific Sessions program, explains what he saw as the top takeaways from AHA 2022.

COVID-related myocarditis linked to significantly worse outcomes than non-COVID cases

The new study, published in Current Problems in Cardiology, included data from nearly 18,000 adult patients. 

Medtronic’s Arctic Front cryoballoon catheters

Treating AFib early with cryoablation reduces risk of disease progression, repeat hospitalization

“The evidence shows increasingly that it’s time to rethink how we approach the treatment of AFib,” one researcher said.

Around the web

Several key trends were evident at the Radiological Society of North America 2024 meeting, including new CT and MR technology and evolving adoption of artificial intelligence.

Ron Blankstein, MD, professor of radiology, Harvard Medical School, explains the use of artificial intelligence to detect heart disease in non-cardiac CT exams.