Correcting iron deficiency in patients with cardiac failure might reduce the risk of new hospitalizations according to the AFFIRM-AHF published in the Lancet and presented at AHA 2020. The combined primary end point of death and hospitalizations was not met; yet the study showed a significant reduction of 26% in hospitalization rate. Irrespective of the…
AHA 2020 | Statins: Confirmed Benefits for the Elderly
Elderly patients (>70) with high cholesterol levels have been systematically excluded from randomized studies on statins, despite their higher risk of cardiovascular events. Presented at AHA 2020 Scientific Sessions and published simultaneously in the Lancet, along comes this primary prevention study including patients between 70 and 100 years of age. The use of therapies to…
What Is the Healthiest Diet?
This review published in JACC focuses on the foods we shood consume rather than the foods we should avoid eating (the latter being the most common focus). In this regard, the Mediterranean diet, with fish as protein source, should be the gold standard, the ultimate goal being to extend life expectancy. Promoting cardiovascular health based…
ESC 2020 | Antihypertensive Therapy Reduces Events Regardless of BP Levels or Risk
Antihypertensive therapy reduces the risk of cardiovascular events even in patients with no history of heart disease or with normal baseline blood pressure (BP). This fuels a long-running debate about thresholds for hypertension diagnosis (which may or may not exist). Beyond that, the higher the baseline BP, the better the benefit. The decision to prescribe…
ESC 2020 | More Evidence on Colchicine for Chronic Ischemic Heart Disease
According to this new study, colchicine offers some benefit to patients with chronic ischemic heart disease. Similar to COLCOT, this is the second large randomized study with results confirming the inflammatory hypothesis. Colchicine taken at a daily dose of 0.5 mg reduces cardiovascular events in patients with stable coronary disease, according to data from the LoDoCo2…
ESC 2020 | Dapagliflozin in Kidney Failure: The Drug Continues to Conquer Other Territories
The DAPA-CKD trial has shown dapagliflozin, a SGLT2 receptor inhibitor, improves function, and reduces cardiovascular events and mortality. The latter is true regardless being or not diabetic. Patients with chronic kidney failure randomized to dapagliflozin saw improved kidney function, reduced cardiovascular events and increased survival rate. Primary end point, a combination of glomerular filtration deterioration…
ESC 2020 | New SGLT2 Inhibitor Impacts Heart Failure Mortality
Empagliflozin is the second drug from the SGLT2 receptor inhibitor family to show a significant benefit in patients with heart failure, even in those without diabetes. Adding empagliflozin to optimal medical therapy lowers the risk of cardiovascular events in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction. Such events include heart failure hospitalization, worsening kidney…
ESC 2020 | New Drug Improves Functional Capacity in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
In patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, myosin inhibitor mavacamten plus optimal medical therapy improved hemodynamics, functional capacity, and symptoms. Mavacamten is the first myosin inhibitor drug of its class. Presented virtually at the European Society of Cardiology 2020 Congress (ESC 2020) and published simultaneously in The Lancet, the EXPLORER-HCM study showed that 37% of patients who received…
ESC 2020 | Atrial Fibrillation and Rhythm Control: A Matter of Time?
Early rhythm control therapy in patients recently diagnosed with atrial fibrillation reduces the risk of cardiovascular events compared against the usual treatment of frequency control. These data come from the EAST-AFNET 4 trial recently presented at ESC 2020, simultaneously published in NEJM. These data suggest that we should offer patients early rhythm control therapy to…
When and How Could Dexamethasone Be Useful in a COVID-19 Infection?
More details have emerged on the group of COVID-19 patients who received dexamethasone in the RECOVERY trial. These data, published as a preliminary report in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), suggest that dexamethasone could reduce mortality in cases when infection effects are mainly derived from immunopathological elements in patients requiring mechanical ventilation or…
Peripheral Artery Disease: Underestimated and Undertreated
Compared against coronary artery disease (CAD) or cerebrovascular disease patients, peripheral artery disease (PAD) patients have lower chances of receiving medication proved to be clinically effective such as statins (despite running the same risk, perhaps even higher risk). The message is we should be more active both in finding risk factors in PAD patients, and…