Heart Podcast

Alistair Lindsey talks to Martin Hülsmann and Noemi Pavo, both from the Medical University of Vienna, about their paper examining cardiovascular biomarkers in cancer patients. Paper: http://heart.bmj.com/content/early/2015/09/08/heartjnl-2015-307848.abstract

Chocolate is an important dietary source of flavonoid antioxidants, which are hypothesised to have a beneficial effect on endothelial function and protect against cardiovascular disease (CVD). In this podcast Dr Alistair Lindsay talks to Dr Phyo K Myint about his team's research into this topic. In order to evaluate any association between habitual chocolate consumption and the risk of cardiovascular events, they analysed data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer-Norfolk (EPIC-Norfolk), and incorporated the results from this observational study into the evidence available to date.

Aortic valve stenosis (AS) is a progressive disease, but the impact of baseline AS haemodynamic or anatomic severity on AS progression remains unclear. In this podcast Dr Alistair Lindsay talks to Dr Virginia Nguyen about her study to evaluate the impact of baseline AS severity assessed, either by using echocardiography (haemodynamic assessment) or MSCT (anatomic assessment) on AS progression.

Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) has a considerable evidence base and it is firmly established as the most common procedure used in the invasive treatment of patients with CHD in the UK. The evidence base relating to PCI has been reviewed and this has been published in Heart. The guidelines focus on issues pertinent to practice within the UK and set out a recommended template to ensure optimal delivery of patient care. Dr Alistair Lindsay speaks to Professor Adrian Banning from the John Radcliffe Hospital at the University of Oxford who was co-author on the guidelines.

Dr Alistair Lindsay speaks to Dr Tomasz Baron about his research which aimed to assess differences in incidence, clinical features, current treatment strategies and outcome in patients with type 2 vs. type 1 acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Full paper found here >> http://heart.bmj.com/content/101/2/101.full?sid=e9538ca9-604b-40af-95a7-c03f016f4c2e

Frailty in older age is known to be associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. However, the extent to which frailty is associated with the CVD risk profile has been little studied. Dr Alistair Lindsay talked to Dr Sheena Ramsay about her study and the clinical implications of the results. The original paper can be found here: http://heart.bmj.com/content/101/8/616.full?sid=767613b9-71bb-41af-80e8-361647c03828

Dr Alistair Lindsay speaks to Dr Edward Carlton about his published paper investigating whether a novel accelerated diagnostic protocol (ADP) for suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS) could successfully identify low-risk patients suitable for discharge after a single high-sensitivity troponin T.

Dr Alistair Lindsay spoke to Dr Eliseo Guallar about his study to nvestigate the association between regular coffee consumption and the prevalence of coronary artery calcium (CAC) in a large sample of young and middle-aged asymptomatic men and women. Read the article here http://heart.bmj.com/content/early/2015/02/06/heartjnl-2014-306663.full?sid=3959ea9e-52ba-4e69-97fa-1b55aa2b9738

Alistair Lindsay talks to Scott Montgomery, honorary professor of epidemiology and public health, Institute of Epidemiology & Health, UCL, about his paper investigating physical fitness and stress resilience in adolescence and risk of coronary heart disease in middle age. Read the paper: http://heart.bmj.com/content/early/2015/02/10/heartjnl-2014-306703

Alistair Lindsey talks to Christopher Cannon, Havard Clinical Research Institute, about the results of his IMPROVE-IT trial, which examined clinical outcomes of adding ezetimibe to simvastatin. This podcast was recorded at the American Heart Association scientific sessions in Chicago.

Some studies have suggested endothelial dysfunction in adult patients after repair of aortic coarctation (CoA), and it has been proposed to play a key role in the pathogenesis of arterial hypertension in the absence of re-coarctation. A study recently published in Heart aimed to assess the presence of endothelial dysfunction, the number of endothelial progenitor cells, and the levels of proinflammatory cytokines associated with endothelial injury in contemporary patients after CoA repair. Alistair Lindsay discusses what the work revealed with lead author Robert Radke, Division of Adult Congenital and Valvular Heart Disease, Department of Cardiology and Angiology, University Hospital Muenster. Read the full paper (for free): http://goo.gl/z32cOl

The ESC has published new guidelines for diagnosis and management of thoracic aortic disease. In this podcast, Catherine Otto asks Dr Iung, Professor of Cardiology, Bichat Hopital, Paris Diderot University, France, to summarise the key new points in these guidelines, specifically focusing on aortopathy in patients with bicuspid valve disease, and in those with Marfan syndrome and other inherited connective tissue disorders. This podcast was recorded at the European Society of Cardiology Annual Scientific Sessions, Barcelona, Spain, August 2014.

In this episode of the Heart podcast, Dr James Rudd, associate editor, sits down to talk with Prof Valentin Fuster, director of Mount Sinai Heart and physician-in-chief at The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, at the ESC meeting in Barcelona. They discuss his ground-breaking work in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease in children and young adults across the world and the role of imaging in identifying early heart disease. Prof. Fuster also explains the rationale behind the polypill and how he came to have his own character on Sesame Street.

In this podcast Catherine Otto speaks to Dr P G Pieper, Associate Professor of Cardiology, University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands, about the recent paper in Heart on assessing the risk of pregnancy for women with congenital heart disease. This study compared three different scoring systems and found that the WHO score provided the most accurate risk prediction. The importance of this issue is illustrated by the approximately 10% risk of maternal complications in this patient group. This podcast was recorded at the European Society of Cardiology Annual Scientific Sessions, Barcelona Spain, August 31, 2014. Read the original article: Prospective validation and assessment of cardiovascular and offspring risk models for pregnant women with congenital heart disease http://heart.bmj.com/content/100/17/1373

Recorded at the 2014 British Cardiovascular Society meeting in Manchester, Heart associate editor Dr James Rudd talks to Dr Rob Casserley, summiteer of Everest, and his wife and cardiologist Marie-Kristelle Ross. Rob initially worked as surgeon and is now a GP with a specialist interest in altitude and expedition medicine. He has climbed Everest eight times, including double summits in spring 2007 and spring 2010, and is the first-ever Western climber to have achieved this feat. He was been featured in "Everest ER", a BBC1 documentary series about medicine and climbing on Everest. He assisted Sir Ranulph Fiennes as doctor, guide and cameraman in a 2008 climb of Everest. In this episode of the Heart podcast, they discuss high altitude, endurance sports and their effects on the heart and lungs in both health and disease.

Professor Vahanian, Bichat Hospital, Paris, France, is a world leader in management of patients with Valvular Heart Disease and is the lead author of the European Society of Cardiology Guidelines. In this interview, held during the Transcatheter Valve Therapeutics Meeting in Vancouver, Canada in June 2014, Professor Vahanian talks with Catherine Otto about the current approach to patient selection for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). The availability of TAVI has transformed our approach to the elderly or high risk patient with severe aortic stenosis and the use of this technology continues to expand as technical issues are resolved and more data on valve durability is published. Clinicians will want to keep up to date on the latest information so appropriate patients are referred for this life saving treatment. To read more about transcatheter aortic valve implantation, see several recent articles in Heart: Predictive factors of early mortality after transcatheter aortic valve implantati

In this interview held during the Transcatheter Valve Therapeutics Meeting in Vancouver, Canada in June 2014, Heart editor Catherine Otto talks to Ted Feldman, Evanston Hospital. Professor Feldman is one of the leaders in the field of transcatheter mitral valve repair, and discusses patient selection, procedural aspects and intermediate term outcomes with this exciting new therapy. Clinicians will find this brief summary useful as this new technique offers a therapeutic options for many of our patients with mitral regurgitation who are not candidates for conventional open surgery. For more information about intervention for patients with severe mitral regurgitation, readers can consult several recent articles in Heart: A systematic review on the safety and efficacy of percutaneous edge-to-edge mitral valve repair with the MitraClip system for high surgical risk candidates http://goo.gl/0MBpMF 2014 ACC/AHA valve guidelines: earlier intervention for chronic mitral regurgitation http://goo.gl/dXDX0U Val

Recorded at the 2014 British Cardiovascular Society meeting in Manchester, Heart associate editor Dr James Rudd talks to Dr Arthur Yue, consultant electrophysiologist at the University Hospital of Southampton. In this podcast, they discuss the expanding roles of electrophysiological specialists in managing arrhythmias, accessory pathways and the new upcoming NICE guidelines on atrial fibrillation.

Extensive research has established that physical activity is inversely associated with the risk of developing cardiovascular disease in healthy adults. In patients with manifest cardiovascular disease, current clinical practice guidelines recommend encouraging patients to undertake daily moderate intensity physical exercise for secondary prevention. While such recommendations are based on numerous clinical trials clearly showing that exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation improves prognosis in heart disease patients, only a few prospective studies have examined the potential benefit of physical activity in clinical practice under real-life conditions. A recent Heart paper investigates the association of leisure time physical activity level with prognosis in a cohort of patients with coronary heart disease. Lead author Ute Mons, Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center, discusses what they found. Read the full paper: http://goo.gl/gDHlH2

Experimental and epidemiological studies have provided evidence of associations between air pollution and cardiovascular health. More pollution-related deaths occur from heart disease than from any other cause. A recent study in Heart aimed to further current understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms by examining the strength and specificity of acute relationships between ambient air pollution and a range of CVD events. The key mechanistic question addressed is whether events of clear thrombotic origin, namely, acute MI, stroke and related outcomes, have a stronger association with air pollution than non-thrombotic outcomes. Lead author Ai Milojevic, Department of Social and Environmental Health Research, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, describes what they found.