After adjusting for multiple variables, an observational study found that every 10 mm Hg increase in systolic blood pressure was associated with a 12 percent increased mortality risk and a 7 percent greater risk of heart failure hospitalizations among black adults.

Northwestern University’s cardiology department and cardiothoracic surgery programs have jumped from No. 25 to No. 6 in the U.S. News and World Report ranking in just six years. Cardiovascular Business spoke with the department's head, Clyde W. Yancy, MD, about successes in his division, what consequences could be looming in light of MACRA and what advice he has for his peers.

In 2015, the age-adjusted death rates increased 0.9 percent for heart disease and 3 percent for stroke compared with 2014, according to a Centers of Disease Control and Prevention report released on Dec. 8.

After adjusting for physical and psychiatric illness, patients in Taiwan with an acute coronary syndrome had increased odds of suicide, according to a case-referent study. The odds of suicide were highest during the six months following an acute coronary syndrome and remained high for at least four years.

Adults who smoked between one and 10 cigarettes per day had 1.5 times the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease compared to those who never smoked, according to a prospective cohort study. Smokers also had more than six times the risk of dying from respiratory diseases such as emphysema.

A study of healthy adults found that the mean awake ambulatory blood pressure was often higher than clinic blood pressure and that 15.7 percent of adults with nonelevated clinical blood pressure had masked hypertension.

A woman filed a lawsuit on Dec. 1 against a cardiology center in Houston and a physician alleging they compromised her medical records, the Southeast Texas Record reports.

The FDA expanded the approval of empagliflozin (Jardiance) on Dec. 2 to reduce the risk of cardiovascular death in adults with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.