Science News

Program Highlights: Scientific Sessions 2017

Eric Peterson, MD, program chair for Scientific Sessions 2017, and Don Lloyd-Jones, MD, ScM, program vice chair, review the highlights of the clinical science planned for the meeting in Anaheim.

Welcome to Scientific Sessions 2017

John Warner, MD, president of the American Heart Association, welcomes members to Scientific Sessions 2017 in Anaheim.

Resuscitation Science Symposium - Best Oral Abstract Presentations and Presentation of the Best Abstract Awards for Cardiac and Trauma Resuscitation Science

• How Do Resuscitation Teams at Top-Performing Hospitals for In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Differ? A Qualitative Study
  RESULTS: In-hospital cardiac arrest resuscitation teams: Clues to what works for a top-performing hospital
  
• Prehospital Advanced Life Support and Survival After Traumatic Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Cohort Study From the Japanese National Registry
  RESULTS: Better 1-month survival when advanced life support (ALS) is provided by physicians for traumatic OHCA patients

Resuscitation Science Symposium - Selected Oral Abstracts

• FROST-I
  RESULTS: Lower cooling temps for OHCA patients may improve survival with good neurological outcome
  
• ROC ALPS
  RESULTS: Rearrest inversely related to outcome, but not related to antiarrhythmic treatment group

Opening Sessions, Part I: Presidential Address

John Warner, president of the American Heart Association, delivers the Presidential Address at Scientific Sessions 2017 in Anaheim, California.

TRiCS III

C. David Mazer, MD summarizes the results of TRICS III, which he presented for Scientific Sessions 2017 in Anaheim.

PRESERVE

Steven Weisbord, MD, MSc summarizes the results of the PRESERVE trial.

DACAB

Sidney C. Smith, Jr, MD, past-president of the American Heart Association, discusses the results of the DACAB trial.

BRUISE CONTROL 2

David Birnie, MD summarizes the results of BRUISE CONTROL-2.

Opening Session: Presidential Address

Late Breaking Clinical Trials 1: CABG and EP Peri-procedural Dilemmas

• TRiCS III
  RESULTS: Clinical outcomes for restrictive red cell transfusion strategy not inferior to liberal strategy for cardiac surgery.
• DACAB
  RESULTS: Ticagrelor + ASA compared to ASA alone = better CABG saphenous vein graft (SVG) patency at 1 year.
• PRESERVE
  RESULTS: For AF patients on NOAC anticoagulants having device surgery, there was no real difference for continuing vs stopping NOAC’s for surgery; trial stopped early because of low event rates for both arms.  
• BRUISE CONTROL-2
  RESULTS: For adverse events or contrast-associated acute kidney injury with angiography, no benefit was found with IV sodium bicarbonate vs IV sodium chloride, or oral N-acetylcysteine vs placebo.
• ABRIDGE J
  RESULTS: At 3 months after AF catheter ablation, the probability of major bleeding events were less with minimally-interrupted dabigatran when compared to uninterrupted warfarin.

CANTOS

Paul M. Ridker, MD provides an overview of the results of the CANTOS trial.

SPRINT

Karen C. Johnson relates the results of the SPRINT trial.

GATEWAY

Carlos A. Schiavon, MD, PhD provides an overview of the results of the GATEWAY trial.

REAL CAD

Sidney C. Smith, Jr, MD, past-president of the American Heart Association, discusses the results of REAL-CAD.

BP TITRE

Sidney C. Smith, Jr, MD, past-president of the American Heart Association, discusses the results of the BP TITRE trial.

Understanding the 2017 Hypertension Guidelines

John Warner, MD, president of the American Heart Association, interviews Paul Whelton, MD, writing group chair for the 2017 Hypertension Clinical Practice Guidelines and the need for the guidelines, the new classification system, and what it means for clinicians and their patients. Read the guidelines, resources, and complete coverage.

Strategies for Adherence to Treatments for Hypertension

Dan W. Jones, MD, past-president of the American Heart Association, and Paul Whelton, MD, chair of the writing group for the 2017 Hypertension Clinical Practice Guidelines discuss strategies for adherence to treatments for hypertension. Read the guidelines, resources, and complete coverage.

Late Breaking Clinical Trials 2: Late Breaking Science in Prevention

• REAL-CAD
  RESULTS: Higher intensity pitavastatin therapy lowered LDL-C and reduced adverse cardiovascular events more than moderate-intensity pitavastatin therapy in this Japanese study population.
• REVEAL
  RESULTS: Major coronary events lower with anacetrapib for patients with and without DM.
• FOURIER
  RESULTS: In patients with PAD, evolocumab significantly reduced LDL-C and major cardiovascular events, including death, heart attack, and stroke.
• FOURIER with MI - Analysis
  RESULTS: In patients with a prior MI, evolocumab significantly reduced the risk for major cardiovascular events, including death, heart attack, and stroke.
• CANTOS
  RESULTS: Targeting inflammatory pathways with canakinumab reduced rates of adverse cardiovascular events.

Late Breaking Clinical Trials 3: Latest Insights into Hypertension Management

• BP TITRE
  RESULTS: More time spent at the target blood pressure resulted in a lower risk for cardiovascular disease and death.
• SPRINT
  RESULTS: Blood pressure control was similar even with different levels of BP attendance.
• GATEWAY
  RESULTS: Bariatric surgery reduced the need for antihypertensive drugs while keeping blood pressure controlled.

Late Breaking Clinical Trials 4: Sweet Spot in Cardiometabolic Care

• CANVAS
  RESULTS: Canagliflozin reduced adverse cardiovascular events for patient with type 2 diabetes and no history of cardiovascular disease.
• EXSCEL
  RESULTS: The treatment effect of exenatide was similar across all risk groups (low – high) for clinical outcomes, regardless of baseline risk. Baseline risk did not predict clinical benefit.
• EMPA-REG OUTCOME
  RESULTS: In these patients with HF, T2DM, and PAD, empagliflozin compared to placebo reduced the risk of cardiovascular and all-cause death, and HF hospitalizations.
• BiomarCaRE
  RESULTS: In the general population, 4 metabolites were noted to be inversely associated with coronary heart disease. This may aid risk stratification.

STIC2IT

Niteesh K. Choudhry, MD, PhD provides an overview of the results of STIC2IT.

ACS QUIK

Mark Huffman, MD, MPH, Mohanan Padinhare, MD, DM(Cardiology), and Dorairaj Prabhakaran, MD, DM (Cardiology), MSc discuss the purpose and results of ACS QUIK.

STEMI ACCELERATOR-2

Christopher Granger, MD, James Jollis, MD, and Mayme Lou Roettig, RN, MSN share the results of STEMI ACCELERATOR-2.

New Insights into Antithrombotic Therapies

Elliott Antman, MD, past-president of the American Heart Association and Paul Gurbel, MD review the latest antithrombotic therapy science presented in LBS.05 during Scientific Sessions 2017 in Anaheim.

New Guidelines for Proper Blood Pressure Measurement

Dan W. Jones, MD, past-president of the American Heart Association, and Robert M. Carey, MD, writing group co-chair, discuss the 2017 Hypertension Clinical Practice Guidelines for proper blood pressure measurement.

The Prevalence of Hypertension as Defined by the 2017 Guidelines

Dan W. Jones, MD, past-president of the American Heart Association, and Paul Whelton, MD, writing group chair, discuss the prevalence of hypertension as defined by the 2017 Hypertension Clinical Practice Guidelines.

Late Breaking Clinical Trials 5: New Insights into the Risks, Benefits, and Costs of Antithrombotic Therapy

• COMPASS
  RESULTS: Rivaroxaban + ASA reduced major CV events and direct hospital costs.
• RE-DUAL PCI
  RESULTS: Subgroup benefits of dual therapy with dabigatran vs. warfarin triple therapy aligned with the main trial results.
• POISE-2 PCI
  RESULTS: For non-cardiac surgery patients and a past history of PCI, the use of perioperative aspirin reduced the risk for death or MI at 30 days after surgery.
• GEMINI-ACS-1
  RESULTS: The use of P2Y12 inhibitors changed infrequently, possibly because routine pharmacogenomic testing and reporting of CYP2C19 status in ACS patients was low.
• PRAGUE-18
  RESULTS: Prasugrel versus Ticagrelor showed similar rates of effectiveness (adverse CV events) 1 year after an MI (safety and efficacy).

Late Breaking Clinical Trials 6: Evaluating Quality Improvement and Patient Centered Care Interventions

• SWEDEHEART
  RESULTS: Over the past 20 years, as evidence-based treatments for NSTEM patients were implemented, long-term survival has improved and the risk for new CV events and HF has improved. (Swedish study)
• STIC2IT
  RESULTS: Tele-pharmacy Intervention improved adherence to medication, but did not improve clinical outcomes.
• ACS QUIK
  RESULTS: In this Indian population, the quality improvement toolkit improved process measures (in-hospital and discharge medications), but did not improve the 30-day MACE rates compared to usual care.
• iCARE-ACS
  RESULTS: An ED tool used to assess ACS in 7 New Zealand hospitals increased the number of patients safely discharged within 6 hours.
• DECIDE-LVAD
  RESULTS: A DT LVAD decision support tool improved the quality of decisions with more alignment between the value of the treatment and the patient’s wishes.
• STEMI ACCELERATOR-2
  RESULTS: Improvements in regional systems of care was associated with significant reduction in time to STEMI reperfusion, as well as in-hospital mortality.

Scientific Sessions 2017: What We Learned

Eric Peterson, MD, program chair, and Donald Lloyd-Jones, MD, ScM, program vice chair review the highlights of Scientific Sessions 2017.

Early Career Perspective: Best of Scientific Sessions 2017

Eldrin Lewis, MD, MPH interviews Early Career Bloggers Annie Roessler, Baily De Barmore, and Shayan Mohammadmoradi about their experiences at Scientific Sessions 2017. Read their posts and other bloggers in the Early Career Voice.

The Patient Perspective

Early Career Blogger Bailey DeBarmore talks to heart transplant recipient Leilani Graham about the patient perspective on Scientific Sessions 2017.

New Treatment Approaches for Hypertension

Dan W. Jones, MD, past-president of the American Heart Association, and Paul Whelton, MD, writing group chair, discuss the implications of the 2017 Hypertension Clinical Practice Guidelines for treating patients at various levels of risk.

Managing Hypertension in Patients with Comorbidities

Dan W. Jones, MD, past-president of the American Heart Association, and Robert Carey, MD, writing group co-chair, discuss the implications of the 2017 Hypertension Clinical Practice Guidelines for patients with the comorbidities of diabetes and chronic kidney disease.

Late Breaking Clinical Trials 7:  Innovative Therapies and Novel Applications

• REDUCE LAP-HF
  RESULTS: 1-month results in HFpEF patients: use of a transcatheter interatrial shunt device (IASD) compared to placebo reduced exercise PCWP.
• TNT-POAF
  RESULTS: Epicardial botulinum toxin vs placebo resulted in no significant difference in risk for POAF.
• PROPEL
  RESULTS: At 12 weeks in PAD patients, 6-minute walking performance was not better with GM-CSF alone or added to supervised treadmill exercise.
• ALLSTAR
  RESULTS: At 6 months, the percent change in infarct size after an MI was similar for allogeneic heart stem cells compared to placebo.
• HOPE-Duchenne
  RESULTS: MRI results 6 months with intramyocardial cardiosphere-derived cells (CDCs): decrease in myocardial scar and increased inferior systolic wall thickening.