Cardiology

In a trial involving patients with infrapopliteal artery disease, the use of a drug-eluting resorbable scaffold was superior to angioplasty in reducing reintervention and maintaining patency at 1 year.

Conversations about prognosis are difficult for patients and clinicians. Clinicians should partner with patients as they integrate prognostic information into goals and end-of-life decisions.

Peripheral artery disease affects approximately 10 million people in the United States and more than 230 million people globally.¹ Atherosclerotic occlusive disease involving the leg reduces ambulatory function. When symptoms become severe, the clinical manifestation is termed chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) and is characterized by limb pain at...

A hospitalized poet writes a series of poems that seem possible only when one is near death. Grasping his condition through metaphor, he shares with his doctors an evolving understanding of life’s mysteries.

Red-cell transfusion is one of the most commonly performed medical procedures. It is also one of the most overused medical procedures, which largely neglects the associated risks, costs, and sustainability of liberal transfusion practices. In 1999, Hébert and colleagues published their findings from the landmark Transfusion Requirements in Critical Care...

In patients with myocardial infarction and anemia, a liberal transfusion strategy led to fewer deaths and heart attacks than a restricted transfusion strategy, but the difference was of borderline significance.

In a randomized trial of PCI in patients with stable angina who were receiving little or no antianginal medication and had documented ischemia, PCI resulted in a better health status with respect to angina than placebo at 12 weeks.

Hypotension developed in a 14-year-old boy after pericardiocentesis. An echocardiogram (shown in a video) revealed new right ventricular dilatation, biventricular systolic dysfunction, and severe tricuspid regurgitation.

The primary aim of treating patients with stable angina is to decrease symptoms and improve quality of life. Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), a treatment for patients with angina, does not reduce the risk of death from any cause, death from cardiac causes, or myocardial infarction.¹ In this issue...

In a trial in patients with cardiovascular disease and overweight or obesity but no diabetes, semaglutide was superior to placebo in lowering the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events at a mean follow-up of 39.8 months.

Overweight and obesity have reached epidemic proportions, affecting more than 70% of the U.S. adult population and more than 50% of persons worldwide.¹ In addition to numerous health consequences, obesity contributes to cardiovascular disease indirectly through the development of risk factors and directly through various biologic mechanisms.²

The persistent scarcity of available donor hearts demands concerted efforts to expand the pool of donors and maximize their use for heart transplantation. Central to this goal is appropriate care for brain-dead donors as performed by organ-procurement organizations (OPOs) and guided by consensus protocols.^1,2 Although decades old and...

A 69-year-old woman with a history of focal pleural plaques due to occupational asbestos exposure presented with chronic dyspnea on exertion. Chest imaging showed calcification of the pericardium.

In this randomized trial involving hemodynamically unstable brain-dead potential heart donors, intravenous levothyroxine infusion did not result in more hearts being transplanted than saline infusion.

Among patients at low surgical risk who underwent TAVR or surgery, there was no apparent difference between groups in the incidence of the composite end point of death, stroke, or rehospitalization at 5 years.

Hypoxemia and shock developed in a woman with atrial fibrillation who had been admitted for management of an ischemic stroke. Imaging (shown in videos) showed a thrombus in transit across a patent foramen ovale.

Aortic-valve stenosis is an increasingly important cause of cardiovascular disease, particularly among older adults, with an overall prevalence of 2.8% among adults older than 75 years of age.¹ Aortic stenosis is a progressive disease in which the rate of change of the aortic-valve area is estimated to be...

Certain implantable cardioverter–defibrillators that are subject to a recall continue to be implanted. Patients and clinicians are confronted with an important decision about how to proceed.