Cardiovascular

The Million Hearts initiative, which aims to prevent a million cardiovascular events in a 5-year period, will focus on utilizing its partnerships with health systems and employers as it embarks upon its second phase, according to Janet Wright, MD, FACC, the program’s executive director.

At the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, Kevin C. Maki, PhD, CLS, FNLA, FTOS, FACN, of Midwest Biomedical Research/Center for Metabolic and Cardiovascular Health in Chicago, Illinois, discussed methods of quantifying treatment effects in cardiovascular outcomes trials.

During an industry workshop at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, Cliff Goodman, PhD, of the Lewin Group, moderated a session that provided a health economic case study on cardiovascular outcome data for Repatha (evolocumab), the PCSK9 inhibitor from Amgen.

According to Alex C. Spyropoulos, MD, FACP, FCCP, FRCPC, professor of medicine at the Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine, research on rivaroxaban to prevent thrombosis is moving from determining efficacy to evaluating patient-centered outcomes in a variety of clinical situations, as evidenced by new studies like EINSTEIN-CHOICE and the MARINER trial.

The CVD-REAL study presented at the American College of Cardiology 66th Scientific Session asked whether cardiovascular outcomes seen in the EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial could be seen in a real-world environment, and for the entire class of SGLT2 inhibitors, according to AstraZeneca’s Jim McDermott, PhD, vice president for Medical Affairs, Diabetes.

The Million Hearts initiative launched in 2012 set a lofty goal of preventing 1 million cardiovascular deaths in 5 years, but did not quite achieve that target. According to the program’s executive director, Janet Wright, MD, FACC, Million Hearts will continue to make progress in part due to the solid foundations it has formed in the initial stage.

The study found a "dose effect" in the elderly women who took statins to treat cholesterol.

The drop in mortality was driven by a significant drop in cardiovascular mortality, the leading cause of death among seniors.

Researchers have identified another high associated with marijuana use: the risk of heart failure and cerebrovascular accidents.

An author in JAMA points out some caveats to a ground-breaking trial.

Amgen's Repatha was shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, such as cardiovascular death and myocardial infarction, in phase 3 of the FOURIER study. Full results will be presented in March 2017 at the American College of Cardiology 66th Scientific Sessions.

Busy lifestyles are eroding the lines of traditional meal times, and all-day eating is bad for cardiovascular health, the statement says.

The study found only tobacco use and hypertension were worse on the heart than depression.

The new study in Diabetes Care comes more than a year after the initial results of the TECOS trial were presented at the American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions.

Researchers considered finding a diabetes drug that also produced a cardiovascular benefit to be a "holy grail."

The matchstick-size pump has been heralded as a game changer in addressing the biggest problem in diabetes care: medication adherence.

Patients who live with rheumatoid arthritis do not die from swollen joints but face twice the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke.

A new study suggests pollution particles could set into motion events like heart attacks and strokes years before they occur.

While the researchers found a "modest risk" of diabetes associated with job insecurity, they said it pointed to the need for policies that promoted job stability and better wages.

The Jackson Heart Study continues to yield insights about the nature of cardiovascular disease in minority populations.