Cardiac adipose tissue is normally present in the epicardium, but a variable amount can also be present in the myocardium, particularly in the subepicardial regions of the right ventricular anterolateral and apical regions. Pathological adipose tissue changes may occur in both ischemic (previous myocardial infarction) and nonischemic (previous myocarditis, arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy, lipomatous hypertrophy of the interatrial septum, cardiac lipomas and liposarcomas) conditions, with or without extensive replacement-type myocardial fibrosis. Cardiac magnetic resonance is the gold standard imaging technique to characterize myocardial tissue changes and to distinguish between physiological and pathological cardiac fat deposits. In this review, we present the most common conditions presenting with myocardial fatty infiltration or with fatty replacement and the best magnetic resonance sequences to detect them, providing a comparison with histological findings and discussing their clinical significance.

Effective risk communication is essential in managing cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of global mortality. Clear communication between patients and physicians supports informed decision-making, yet comprehension gaps persist. We aimed to assess the quality of risk communication during hospital admissions for cardiovascular events, from patient and physician perspectives, and identify discrepancies in risk perception and associated factors.

Wearable accelerometer devices measure free-living physical activity and sleep without relying on self-reports. Their utility to measure and compare recovery of physical function after cardiac surgery procedures has not been previously studied in the setting of a randomized controlled trial.

Post-exercise oxygen uptake recovery (VO2Rec) is slow in advanced heart failure. We sought to establish easily derived VO2Rec measures and evaluate their cardiospecificity and prognostic relevance in patients with dyspnea on exertion. We further sought to determine VO2Rec modifiability proportional to changes in cardiac function with disease-specific treatment of obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

In ISCHEMIA (International Study of Comparative Health Effectiveness With Medical and Invasive Approaches), an invasive strategy demonstrated better health status outcomes than a conservative strategy in patients with chronic coronary disease (CCD). Some previous studies have shown greater health status benefits with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) than percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Whether the health status benefits of invasive management in ISCHEMIA were driven primarily by participants treated with CABG is unknown.

Although the effects of various combinations of treatments on mortality and morbidity outcomes in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) have been evaluated, the impact on quality of life is unknown. This study evaluated and compared the composite impact of pharmacological therapies on quality of life in HFrEF using a frequentist network meta-analysis and systematic review methodology.

Patients with peripheral artery disease experience walking impairment that is incompletely explained by large-artery atherosclerotic occlusive disease and abnormal ankle-brachial index (ABI). Microvascular dysfunction is associated with adverse outcomes, including amputation, but its effect on ambulation is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that skeletal muscle microvascular function directly associates with walking distance, is a more sensitive indicator of walking distance than conduit artery blood inflow, and correlates with ambulatory improvement following peripheral artery disease interventions.

External drainage of the thoracic duct can temporarily reduce tissue congestion and improve symptoms in patients with heart failure. However, loss of fluid limits the duration of this approach. Here, we report on our initial experience with thoracic duct drainage and autotransfusion in patients with elevated central venous pressure.

Doxorubicin (DOX) cardiotoxicity increases cardiovascular risk in cancer patients, mainly through mitochondrial damage. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, and whether mitochondrial short open reading frame-encoded peptides can mitigate DOX-induced cardiotoxicity is unknown.

2D-speckle tracking echocardiography may help detect subclinical ventricular dysfunction, but data in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) are scarce. We investigated left ventricular (LV) strain parameters in MIS-C and their association with outcomes.

The proposed cause of Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) includes coronary microvascular dysfunction. This study aimed to investigate coronary microvascular dysfunction and its recovery in patients with TTS using serial positron emission tomography myocardial perfusion imaging.

Noninvasive imaging is widely used for both initial diagnosis and guided management of ischemic heart disease. Older adults and women with ischemic heart disease may have different responses to imaging and subsequent treatment outcomes compared to younger adults and men. We aimed to study the representation of older adults and women in randomized controlled trials of noninvasive imaging among patients with acute and stable chest pain.