Top in cardiology: Detecting ‘hot’ disease in arteries; small muscle pain risk with statins

Last week, Healio reported from the European Society of Cardiology Congress. The top five stories in cardiology are on research presented at the meeting.

Predicting future cardiovascular events in patients with myocardial infarction can be done through noninvasive 18F-sodium fluoride PET and coronary CTA instead of traditional strategies, a professor of cardiology said at a press conference. The new technique detected “hot” disease in arteries, which can increase the risk for coronary heart disease death/myocardial infarction. It was the top story in cardiology last week.

The second top story was about a small association between statin therapy and a risk for muscle symptoms. Researchers reported that most of the muscle pain that patients experienced while on a statin was not caused by the drug. Further, the risk for these symptoms is much lower than the drugs’ known cardiovascular benefits.

Read these and more top stories in cardiology below:

New technique identifies ‘hot’ disease in arteries that can lead to CV events

Using noninvasive 18F-sodium fluoride PET and coronary CTA to detect “hot” disease in arteries, researchers were able to predict which patients with recent myocardial infarction would have recurrent coronary events. Read more.

Risk for muscle symptoms from statins small, does not outweigh CV benefits

While statin therapy may cause a small excess of mostly mild muscle pain, most muscle symptoms reported in statin trials were not caused by the drug, according to a meta-analysis presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress. Read more.

Short nightly sleep duration tied to obesity in adolescents

Adolescents who sleep fewer hours at night had a higher prevalence of overweight and obesity compared with those who slept for the guideline-recommended 8 hours per night, according to a new study. Read more.

In COVID-19, no place for colchicine; reducing VTE does not affect mortality

Anticoagulation and antiplatelet therapy can reduce risk for venous thromboembolism in COVID-19; however, research suggests these treatments may not influence risk for mortality, speakers reported. Read more.

Smartphone-based screening doubles detection rate of treatment-relevant AF

Among middle-aged and older adults at increased risk for stroke, home-based digital screening using a smartphone more than doubled the detection rate of treatment-relevant atrial fibrillation vs. usual care. Read more.