Important 2019 take home heart messages

Important 2019 take home heart messages

Dr KK Aggarwal

President CMAAO, HCFI and Past National President IMA

•             Icosapent ethyl.  a prescription omega-3 fatty acid, reduced the risk for cardiovascular events by 25% in people with elevated triglyceride levels who were taking statins (REDUCE-IT led the US FDA to approve icosapent ethyl for CV risk reduction in December.

•             COMPLETE trial: STEMI heart attack with multivessel disease benefit from complete revascularization of any other angiographically significant lesions, rather than a strategy of intervention only in the culprit lesion.

•             DAPA-HF trial showed that the glucose-lowering drug dapagliflozin is beneficial in patients with heart failure, both with and without type 2 diabetes.

•             In a large-scale study of over 419,000 Apple Watch users, the device accurately detected atrial fibrillation in more than one third of the participants who received notifications of an irregular pulse.

•             EXTEND trial: it's possible to extend the window for thrombolysis out to 9 hours after ischemic stroke onset in some patients.

•             PARTNER 3 trial: patients with severe aortic stenosis at low surgical risk who had transcatheter aortic valve replacement using the SAPIEN 3 system (Edwards Lifesciences) had lower odds of stroke, rehospitalization, and death compared with those who had traditional surgery.

•             Five-year findings from the NOBLE trial demonstrate that percutaneous coronary intervention  is not as effective as coronary artery bypass grafting in reducing the risk of death, myocardial infarction, repeat revascularization, and stroke in patients with left main disease.

•             In children with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) showed statin therapy beginning at a young age reduced incidence of CV events from 26% to 1% at age 39, and reduced death from CV causes from 7% to 1% at age 39.

•             In older women reducing sedentary time by just 1 hour each day equated to a 26% lower risk of heart disease and a 12% lower risk of CVD overall. The physical activity didn't have to happen all at once — it could be accumulated throughout the day.

•             Older women who engaged in light physical activity, such as gardening or walking, had a 42% lower risk of MI or coronary death than the least-active women.

•             Taking anti BP drug at bedtime led to a 45% reduction of CV events

•             SPRINT MIND study: intensive blood pressure lowering cuts the risk for mild cognitive impairment in adults aged 50 years and older.

•             Children exposed to second-hand smoke from their parents were at a higher risk for atrial fibrillation. For every pack per day increase in parental smoking, their children were 18% more likely to develop atrial fibrillation

 [Medscape]