Patients with an autoimmune or inflammatory disease (AIID) are at increased cardiovascular risk and may benefit more from statin therapy. In the FOURIER trial (Further Cardiovascular Outcomes Research with PCSK9 Inhibition in Subjects with Elevated Risk), the PCSK9 (proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9) inhibitor evolocumab lowered low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, but not hsCRP (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein) levels, and reduced the risk of cardiovascular events.

The genetic risk of intracranial aneurysm (IA) development has been ascribed to the genetic risk of smoking exposure and hypertension. The relationship of IA to other cardiovascular traits and the contribution of IA risk loci to aberrant gene programs within cerebrovascular cell types remains unclear.

High-volume physical activity (PA) is associated with a higher prevalence of subclinical coronary artery disease (CAD). However, the clinical significance of subclinical CAD among high-volume exercisers remains incompletely understood, and the dose-response relationship between high-volume PA and clinical CAD events remains uncertain.

Pulmonary hypertension is a severe disease with high mortality rates due to right ventricular (RV) failure. The molecular and cellular processes involved in RV remodeling, including Ca2+ handling, remain elusive due to the lack of relevant animal models. In this study, we aim to understand better the pathophysiological mechanisms involved in RV failure.

Patients with pulmonary hypertension (PH) are classified based on disease pathogenesis and hemodynamic drivers. Classification informs treatment. The heart failure biomarker NT-proBNP (N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide) is used to help inform risk but is not specific to PH or sub-classification groups. There are currently no other biomarkers in clinical use to help guide diagnosis or risk.

Cardiovascular disease remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in adults despite recent scientific advancements. Although people are living longer lives, there may be an adverse impact on quality of life, necessitating a greater need for palliative care services and support. Palliative care for adults with advanced cardiovascular disease has the potential to significantly improve quality of life for individuals living with cardiovascular disease and their informal care partners. Effective communication, shared decision-making, age-friendly care principles, and advance care planning are vital components of palliative care and support comprehensive and holistic care throughout the advanced cardiovascular disease trajectory and across care settings. Current evidence highlights the benefits of palliative care in managing symptoms, reducing psychological distress, and supporting both people with cardiovascular disease and their care partners. However, significant gaps exist in palliative care research related to non-heart failure populations, care partner outcomes, and palliative care implementation in diverse populations. This scientific statement (1) discusses the application of effective communication, shared decision-making, age-friendly care, and advance care planning in advanced cardiovascular disease palliative care; (2) provides a summary of recent evidence related to palliative care and symptom management, quality of life, spiritual and psychological support, and bereavement support in individuals with advanced cardiovascular disease and their care partners; (3) discusses issues involving diversity, equity, and inclusion in cardiovascular disease palliative care; (4) highlights the ethical and legal concerns surrounding palliative care and implanted cardiac devices; and (5) provides strategies for palliative care engagement in adults with advanced cardiovascular disease for the care team.

Single ventricle congenital heart disease like hypoplastic left heart syndrome with a Fontan circulation constitutes, the largest group of children hospitalized with circulation failure, experiencing an in-hospital mortality rate of 20% to 50%. We investigated the mechanisms leading to Fontan failure to identify novel therapeutic targets.

The growing morbidity, mortality, and health care costs related to heart failure (HF) underscore the urgent need to prioritize its primary prevention. Whereas a risk-based approach for HF prevention remains in its infancy, several key opportunities exist to actualize this paradigm in clinical practice. First, the 2022 American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology/Heart Failure Society of America HF guidelines provided recommendations, for the first time, on the clinical utility of multivariable risk equations to estimate risk of incident HF. Second, the American Heart Association recently developed the PREVENT (Predicting Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Events) equations, which not only enable prediction of incident HF separately, but also include HF in the prediction of total cardiovascular disease. Third, the predominant phenotype of HF risk has emerged as the cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome. Fourth, the emergence of novel therapies that prevent incident HF (eg, sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors) and target multiple cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic axes demonstrate growing potential for risk-based interventions. Whereas the concept of risk-based prevention has been established for decades, it has only been operationalized for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease prevention to date. Translating these opportunities into a conceptual framework of risk-based primary prevention of HF requires implementation of PREVENT-HF (Predicting Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Events-Heart Failure) equations, targeted use of cardiac biomarkers (eg, natriuretic peptides) and echocardiography for risk reclassification and earlier detection of pre-HF, and definition of therapy-specific risk thresholds that incorporate net benefit and cost-effectiveness. This scientific statement reviews the current evidence for accurate risk prediction, defines strategies for equitable prevention, and proposes potential strategies for the successful implementation of risk-based primary prevention of HF.

Previous studies have shown weak agreement between coronary physiology indices derived from continuous and bolus thermodilution, and suggested greater variability with bolus thermodilution measurements. This study aimed to evaluate the repeatability and correlation of continuous and bolus thermodilution-derived physiology indices in cardiac transplant recipients.