Patients who were prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) to treat depression did not have an increased risk of arrhythmia, MI, stroke or transient ischemic attack, according to an observational, cohort study from a large primary care database.

Adults with more ideal cardiovascular health factors had better brain processing speed at initial assessment and less of a decline in processing speed, memory and executive functioning over time, according to a prospective multiethnic population-based study.

Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals announced on March 23 top-line results from a phase 3 study evaluating alirocumab (Praluent) in patients with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia whose cholesterol levels required chronic, weekly or bi-weekly apheresis therapy.

Only 2.7 percent of adults in the U.S. were sufficiently active, ate a healthy diet, did not smoke and had a recommended body fat percentage, according to an analysis of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data. The researchers also found an association between the presence of the healthy lifestyle characteristics and cardiovascular disease biomarkers such as cholesterol, blood pressure and glucose.

During the past 40 years, heart disease mortality has declined in the U.S., although there has been a shift in the concentration of high-rate counties from the Northeast to the South, according to an analysis based on a fully Bayesian spatiotemporal model.

An analysis from ProPublica found doctors who received money from pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers prescribed a higher percentage of branded medications compared with doctors who did not receive such compensation. The report mentioned nearly nine in 10 cardiologists who wrote at least 1,000 prescriptions for Medicare patients in 2014 received payments from a pharmaceutical or medical device company.

A pooled cohort analysis found that sudden cardiac death accounted for nearly one-third of cardiovascular deaths among patients who were discharged from the hospital for a non-ST-segment elevation acute coronary syndrome.

A longitudinal study that followed participants for 28 years found that children with favorable psychosocial factors were less likely to have coronary artery calcification (CAC) and cardiovascular risk factors in adulthood.