Science News

ACC.16 | Chicago, Ill. | April 2–4, 2016

Welcome to AHA's Science News coverage of cardiology news and discovery from ACC.16 in Chicago.

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Selected Science


Mark Creager, MD, president of the American Heart Association, and Steve Houser, PhD, review the some of the science presented at ACC 2016 in Chicago.


Mark Creager, MD, president of the American Heart Association, Don Lloyd-Jones, MD, and Sid Smith, MD discuss the results of the PARTNER 2 trial.


In this video, our experts examine the findings of the HOPE-3 trial and what they mean for moderate-risk patients outside the U.S.

PARTNER 2: Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement Compared with Surgery in Intermediate Risk Patients with Aortic Stenosis: Final Results from the Randomized Placement of Aortic Transcatheter Valves 2 Study
Craig Smith | Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

HOPE-3: Blood Pressure Lowering in People at Moderate Risk
Eva M. Lonn | Population Health Research Institute, Hamilton, Canada, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
HOPE-3: Effects of Rosuvastatin on Cardiovascular Disease in Moderate Risk Primary Prevention in Diverse Ethnic Groups
Jackie Bosch | Population Health Research Institute, Hamilton, Canada, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
HOPE-3: Effects of Combined Lipid and BP-Lowering on Cardiovascular Disease in a Moderate Risk Global Primary Prevention Population
Salim Yusuf | Population Health Research Institute, Hamilton, Canada, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
Statistics from the 2016 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update:
  • Cardiovascular disease is the leading global cause of death, accounting for more than 17.3 million deaths per year, a number that is expected to grow to more than 23.6 million by 2030.
  • In 2013, cardiovascular deaths represented 31 percent of all global deaths, with 80 percent of those deaths taking place in low- and middle-income countries.
  • Nearly 801,000 people in the U.S. died from heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases in 2013. That’s about one of every three deaths in America.
  • About 2,200 Americans die each day from these diseases, one every 40 seconds.
Related Science:

Selected Science from Sunday, April 3


Mark Creager, MD, president of the American Heart Association, Sid Smith, MD, and Dharam Kumbhani, MD discuss the significance of GAUSS 3.


Mark Creager, MD, Tim Gardner, MD, and Dharam Khumbani, MD discuss the findings of the TVT Registry on TAVR, Volume, and Outcomes.

ACCELERATE: Impact of the Cholesteryl Ester Transfer Protein Inhibitor Evacetrapib on Cardiovascular Events
Stephen J. Nicholls | South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Adelaide, Australia
  • Results: Major cardiac events were not lower with evacetrapib, even though LDL lowered and HDL increased.

GAUSS-3: Comparison of PCSK9 Inhibitor Evolocumab Versus Ezetimibe in Statin-intolerant Patients: The Goal Achievement After Utilizing an Anti-PCSK9 Antibody in Statin Intolerant Subjects 3 (GAUSS-3) Trial
Steven E. Nissen | Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA
Low-density Lipoprotein Cholesterol, Familial Hypercholesterolemia Mutation Status and Risk for Coronary Artery Disease
Amit V. Khera | Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA, USA
  • Simultaneous Publication in JACC (opens in new window)
  • Results: Gene mutations as a cause of high cholesterol, familial hypercholesterolemia, are not as common as we thought, but are associated with a much higher risk for early coronary artery disease than non-genetic high cholesterol levels.

Reproducible Impact of a Global Mobile Health (mHealth) Mass-Participation Physical Activity Intervention on Step Count, Sitting Behavior and Weight: the Stepathlon Cardiovascular Health Study
Anand Ganesan | University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia

Involving Patients with Low Risk Chest Pain in Discharge Decisions: A Multicenter Trial
Erik P. Hess | Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA
  • Results: Use of Chest Pain Choice, a shared-decision making tool for the ED patient with chest pain and the physician, resulted in better patient understanding of their status and f/u options.

DANish: The Third DANish Study of Optimal Acute Treatment of Patients with ST-segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction: DEFERred stent implantation in connection with primary PCI
Henning Kelbæk | Rigshospitalet University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Results: Deferring stent implantation for STEMI did not result in improvement in clinical outcomes.

DANish-iPOST: The Third DANish Study of Optimal Acute Treatment of Patients with ST-segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction: iPOST conditioning during primary PCI
Thomas Engstrøm | Rigshospitalet University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Results: Ischemic post-conditioning after STEMI did not result in a reduction in death rates or HF hospitalization

Early-BAMI: Effect Of Early Administration Of Intravenous Beta Blockers In Patients With ST-elevation Myocardial Infarction Before Primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention
Vincent Roolvink | Isala Hospital, Zwolle, Netherlands
Sapien 3 Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement versus Surgery in Intermediate-Risk Patients with Severe Aortic Stenosis: A Propensity-Matched Comparison of One-Year Outcomes
Vinod H. Thourani | Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
  • Results: TAVR recipients fared better than surgery patients for the combined endpoints of death, stroke and moderate to severe AI.

Relationship Between Procedure Volume and Outcome for Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement in U.S. Clinical Practice: Insights from the STS/ACC TVT Registry
John D. Carroll | University of Colorado, Aurora, CO, USA
Statistics from the 2016 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update:
  • About 85.6 million Americans are living with some form of cardiovascular disease or the after-effects of stroke.
  • Direct and indirect costs of cardiovascular diseases and stroke total more than $316.6 billion. That includes health expenditures and lost productivity.
  • Nearly half of all African-American adults have some form of cardiovascular disease, 48 percent of women and 46 percent of men.
  • Heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the world and the leading cause of death in the United States, killing over 370,000 Americans a year.
Related Science:

Selected Science from Monday, April 4


Marc Pfeffer, MD, PhD, Harvard Medical School, provides perspective on the results of the IMPEDANCE-HF Trial.


Mark Creager, MD, president of the American Heart Association, and Steve Houser, PhD, review the some of the science presented in Chicago.

Antiarrhythmic Drugs for Shock-Refractory Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: The Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium Amiodarone, Lidocaine or Placebo Study
Peter J. Kudenchuk | University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
FIRE AND ICE: Largest Randomized Trial Demonstrates an Effective Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation: (NCT01490814)
Karl-Heinz Kuck | Asklepios Klinik St. Georg, Hamburg, Germany
A Randomized Trial of Rate Control Versus Rhythm Control for Atrial Fibrillation after Cardiac Surgery
A. Marc Gillinov | Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
LATITUDE-TIMI 60: The Losmapimod To Inhibit P38 MAP Kinase As A Therapeutic Target And Modify Outcomes After An Acute Coronary Syndrome Trial: Primary Results Of Part A
Michelle L. O'Donoghue | Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
  • Results: Losmapimod compared to placebo did not reduce the rate of major cardiac events in acute MI patients.

CMX-2043 for Prevention of Contrast Induced Acute Kidney Injury: The Primary Results of the CARIN Trial
Deepak L. Bhatt | Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA
  • Results: CMX-2043 did not reduce contrast-induced kidney injury compared to placebo.

ATMOSPHERE: Direct Renin-inhibition With Aliskiren Alone And In Combination With Enalapril, Compared With Enalapril, In Heart Failure
John J. V. McMurray | University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
The Final Results of the IxCell-DCM Trial: Transendocardial Injection of Ixmyelocel-T in Patients with Ischemic Dilated Cardiomyopathy
Timothy D. Henry | Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, Los Angeles, CA, USA
  • Results: In this end-stage HF population, with 12-month f/u, there were fewer deaths, hospitalizations, and HF clinic visits compared to placebo.

INOVATE-HF: The Effect of Vagal Nerve Stimulation in Heart Failure: Primary Results of the INcrease Of VAgal TonE in chronic Heart Failure (INOVATE-HF) Trial
Michael Robert Gold | Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC, USA
Non-invasive Lung IMPEDANCE-Guided Preemptive Treatment in Chronic Heart Failure Patients: a Randomized Controlled Trial (IMPEDANCE-HF trial)
Michael Shochat | Hillel Yaffe Heart Institute, Hadera, Israel
Statistics from the 2016 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics Update:
  • Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women, taking more lives than all forms of cancer combined.
  • Over 39,000 African-Americans died from heart disease in 2013.
  • Cardiovascular operations and procedures increased about 28 percent from 2000 to 2010, according to federal data, totaling about 7.6 million in 2010.
  • In 2014, about 356,500 people experienced out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in the United States. Of those treated by emergency medical services, 12.0 percent survived. Of the 22,520 bystander-witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrests in 2014, 38.6 percent survived.
Related Science: