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CMHC West to explore interactions between various disease states
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Cardiometabolic Health Congress West, taking place from Friday to Sunday in Phoenix, will update attendees on the latest developments in cardiometabolic disorders, diabetes, HF, kidney disease and more, and provide perspectives on how these conditions interact with each other.
The Cardiometabolic Health Congress (CMHC) West agenda targets a broad range of health care professionals, including cardiologists, endocrinologists, primary care physicians, internal medicine physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and dietitians, among others.
Important updates
George L. Bakris, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Comprehensive Hypertension Center at University of Chicago Medicine, said the meeting will include important updates on progression of diabetic kidney disease, discussions about how best to define hypertension, presentations about the appropriateness of bariatric surgery in patients with obesity and cardiometabolic disease and examinations of diabetes and obesity in the Native American population.
Bakris, a Cardiology Today Editorial Board Member, said he also expects detailed discussions of lipid guidelines, antithrombotic agents, CV outcome trials of newer diabetes agents and treatment of HF in patients with hypertension and diabetes.
“There is also going to be discussion about polycystic ovary syndrome in women and its cardiovascular implications,” Bakris said. “And there will be a focus on women with diabetes and their cardiometabolic risk.”
Some of the most anticipated presentations, he said, include a keynote address by Spero M. Manson, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Public Health and Psychiatry at the Colorado School of Public Health, on health and diabetes in the Native American population, and a panel discussion on the intersection of HF, kidney disease and diabetes.
“There is also going to be a talk on advances in iron repletion therapy in patients with heart failure, looking at outcomes and quality of life” by Andy Y. Lee, MD, cardiology fellow at Baylor Scott and White Hospital, and Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH, vice chief of internal medicine at Baylor University Medical Center, Bakris said.
Use of combination therapies at the outset of diabetes treatment will also be discussed in a presentation by Ralph A. DeFronzo, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the diabetes division at the University of Texas Health Science Center and the deputy director of the Texas Diabetes Institute, San Antonio. “What we did in hypertension starting around 1996 is now a focus in the diabetes group,” Bakris said.
Bakris said he hopes that attendees take away “a better way to manage the simple things such as blood pressure, glucose and lipids at an earlier stage to prevent worsening of cardiovascular disease or kidney disease. Also, a better understanding of the mechanism involved in these diseases and how their treatment may be changed in ways shown in clinical trials to be more effective. In addition, there has been an underappreciation of how women present with cardiac disease and cardiometabolic disease. We hope to open the door to a better way of thinking about that.”
Strong emphasis on HF
Clyde W. Yancy, MD, vice dean for diversity and inclusion, chief of cardiology and Magerstadt Professor of Medicine and Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said the agenda has a strong emphasis on HF because although the guidelines contain an algorithm for managing HF with reduced ejection fraction, “the remaining questions that we have pertain to HF with preserved ejection fraction and several important comorbidities that modulate or modify the evidence-based therapy and/or prompt other therapies. So, this is an opportunity to have a more complete picture of a contemporary view of HF.”
Key HF-related discussions, he said, will include treatment strategies for HFpEF, potentially including sacubitril/valsartan (Entresto, Novartis), which is being evaluated in that population in an ongoing trial; the relationship between hypertension and HF; optimal ways to approach HF in women, minorities and the elderly; the intersection between HF and diabetes, and where the SGLT2 inhibitors fit in; and the effect of anemia on HF.
“If there is one thing that attendees walk out with, I hope it will be an understanding that heart failure is not an obligatory consequence of having high blood pressure or diabetes,” said Yancy, who is past president of the American Heart Association. “In both scenarios, we have therapies to prevent the progression to heart failure. We have to consider these as risk factors for heart failure.” – by Erik Swain
Disclosures: Cardiology Today and Healio.com/Cardiology are platinum-level media partners of Cardiometabolic Health Congress. Bakris reports he serves on the planning committee for CMHC West and receives institutional research grants for involvement in trials of multiple newer diabetes drugs. Yancy reports he serves on the planning committee for CMHC West.