Heart Disease

PHILADELPHIA — People with a gene variant that makes certain vegetables taste bitter had lower vegetable intake compared with people without the variant, making adherence to a heart-healthy diet a challenge, according to data presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions.

Patients are at a higher risk of developing retinal vein occlusion if they have high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, according to a study conducted in the Department of Ophthalmology at Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea.

Heart disease is associated with an increased risk for severe cutaneous adverse reactions to allopurinol, according to data published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Among a U.S. population of socioeconomically disadvantaged adults, a polypill-based strategy was associated with greater reductions in systolic BP and LDL compared with the usual care, according to findings published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Among the top stories in cardiology last week were a preview of presentations from the European Society of Cardiology Congress that could affect clinical practice, and a randomized clinical trial presented at the ESC Congress that found evolocumab was well-tolerated and substantially reduced LDL levels when combined with statin therapy.

Researchers have determined that the decline of age-adjusted mortality due to heart disease is slowing, which may mean that the American Heart Association’s strategic goal of a 20% reduction by 2020 is becoming more unlikely.

Regeneron announced top-line results of a phase 3 study showing that evinacumab, its investigational angiopoietin-like 3 antibody, reduced LDL by 49% in patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia who were taking other medications.

SAN ANTONIO — In this video exclusive, Martha Gulati, MD, MS, FACC, FAHA, division chief of cardiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix, physician executive director for Banner University Medicine Heart Institute and editor in chief of ACC’s CardioSmart, discusses the importance of considering sex-specific risk factors for CVD.

Biologic therapy for moderate to severe psoriasis reduced in coronary inflammation, as assessed by perivascular fat attenuation index via coronary CTA, a measurement that may be able to track response to CAD interventions, researchers reported in JAMA Cardiology.