By Scott Buzby
PHILADELPHIA — A speaker unveiled the American Heart Association’s new PREVENT equations to evaluate 10- and 30-year absolute risk associated with cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome.
Details on the PREVENT equations were presented at the AHA Scientific Sessions and simultaneously published in Circulation. Read the article in Healio.
By Michael Monostra
Adults who eat more foods associated with a Mediterranean diet have lower blood pressure, BMI and reduced cardiovascular risk, according to study findings published in Nutrition, Metabolism & Cardiovascular Diseases.
“Our data support the notion that the consumption of a Mediterranean diet may be beneficial for CV health, including in non-Mediterranean settings such as the U.K.,” Sarah Gregory, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Edinburgh Dementia Prevention program at University of Edinburgh in the U.K., and colleagues wrote. Read the article in Healio.
By Judy George
Younger onset age of coronary heart disease was tied to higher risks of incident all-cause dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and vascular dementia, a large prospective cohort study in Great Britain showed.
Each 10-year decrease in coronary heart disease onset age was associated with a 25% increased risk of all-cause dementia, a 29% increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, and a 22% increased risk of vascular dementia (all P<0.001), reported Fanfan Zheng, PhD, of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College in Beijing, and co-authors in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Read the article in MedPage Today.
More than 4,000 people in the U.S. are waiting for a new heart, that’s according to the organization Donate Life America. Anxiety, fear and frustration are some of the emotions people go through while waiting for a lifesaving organ. Dr. Lisa LeMond, a Mayo Clinic cardiologist, says perfusion technology, sometimes called “heart in a box,” is giving hope to transplant patients. Watch the video from the Mayo Clinic.
Written and submitted by Robert Lalley of Silver Spring.
As a heart transplant recipient, I am upset by recent Medicare coverage rollbacks by private contractors that limit some patients’ ability to receive simple diagnostic blood tests that detect early signs of organ transplant rejection so doctors can make rapid treatment decisions. This is very concerning because research shows that one out of three heart transplants fail after 5 years, making proactive monitoring essential to patient care.
Read the full article in The Sentinel Newspapers.
Sharol Lucey, one of the longest-living heart transplant patients in Oregon, honors her donor by living life to the fullest, helping others along the way
By Christine Torres Hicks
Grandkids, beach trips, family-filled Christmases and fresh cinnamon rolls are just some memories Sharol Lucey has been making the past 26 years — thanks to a heart donated in 1997.
Lucey is among the longest-living heart transplant patients in Oregon. As she has for many of the past 26 years, the 76-year-old Vancouver resident joined others who have benefited from organ transplants during an August event at Oregon Health & Science University to raise awareness about the importance of organ donation. Read the full article in OHSU News.
By Erik Swain
PHILADELPHIA — An artificial intelligence-based technology that evaluates coronary inflammation predicted risk for cardiac events in patients undergoing coronary CTA, according to new study data.
In the ORFAN study presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions, risk based on coronary inflammation was a strong predictor of cardiac events even in patients with no obstructive CAD showing no plaque or zero calcium score. Read the full article in Healio.
Dwayne Patterson served aboard the USS Carl Vinson. His heart transplant was at Northwestern Medicine, which operates a clinic at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center in Chicago to treat advanced heart failure.
By Phyllis Cha
Dwayne Patterson is proud of his time in the Navy, and is happy that this year, he can attend a Veterans Day event somewhere near his Park Forest home.
That wasn’t the situation last year, when congestive heart failure left him unable to walk more than a few feet without feeling exhausted. Read the full story in the Chicago Sun Times.
By Anna Giorgi
A heart transplant is a major surgery that involves replacing your diseased heart with a healthy donor heart. It is used as a last resort when drugs and other therapies no longer work in treating advanced heart failure.
Heart failure is a chronic problem that prevents your heart from pumping blood through the rest of your body as it should. The problem can occur as left-sided heart failure, right-sided heart failure, or congestive heart failure.1 Read the article in Verywell Health.
By Michelle M. Kittleson, MD, PhD; James C. Fang, MD
This transcript has been edited for clarity. For more episodes, download the Medscape app or subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred podcast provider.
Michelle M. Kittleson, MD, PhD: Welcome to Medscape’s InDiscussion series on heart failure. I’m your host Dr Michelle Kittleson. This is the final episode in our 12-part series, and we’re capping it off by talking about the heart transplant evaluation process. What are the most difficult decision points in the medical management of heart transplantation? Where should we focus our attention to have the greatest successes? And what do we need to know to best help our patients through the involved process? Check out the complete podcast in Medscape.