ESC: European Society of Cardiology

Coverage from a symposium, “Weight loss as a new therapeutic target in HFpEF: dawn of a new era?” that took place August 27 during the European Society of Cardiology 2023 Congress.

Javed Butler, MD, MPH, MBA, presented the analysis based on patient data from the Baylor, Scott, and White health system during the final hours of the European Society of Cardiology 2023 Congress, which concluded Monday.

There seems to be an institutional ignorance toward social determinants of health and actually making changes to improve outcomes for patients of color, said Shrilla Banerjee, MD, FRCP, consultant cardiologist, Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust.

The EMPEROR trial showed that within 30 days of stopping empagliflozin, patients had a 70% higher risk of heart failure events, explained Milton Packer, MD, Baylor University Medical Center.

Results from the FRAIL-AF study, being presented at the European Society of Cardiology 2023 Congress, surprised the investigators.

Study investigators offered updated data from 2 key trials presented in the past year: CLEAR Outcomes in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and OCEAN(a)-DOSE in lipoprotein (a).

Nikolaus Marx, MD, professor of medicine/cardiology and head of the Department of Internal Medicine, University Hospital Aachen, Germany, explains the new guidelines on screening for patients with type 2 diabetes and comorbid cardiovascular disease (CVD).

A symposium at the European Society of Cardiology 2023 Congress covered the spectrum from diet and exercise, to medical therapy, to evidence on newer generation stents.

When determining the success of cardiology therapies, trials should focus more on softer end points like quality of life and psychological well-being, said Donna Fitzsimons, PhD, FESC, professor of nursing at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Queen's University Belfast.

Javed Butler, MD, MPH, MBA, said "hopefully" results from the EMPACT-MI trial should be available within the next few months.

There is a lot of drug switching that's happening, whether it's for medical or nonmedical reasons, said Steven Deitelzweig, MD, system chairman of hospital medicine at Ochsner Clinical School, professor of medicine at the University of Queensland.

With nearly a third of patients post-myocardial infarction (MI) developing heart failure, prevention is very important, said Javed Butler, MD, MPH, MBA, professor of medicine at University of Mississippi, president of the Baylor Scott & White Research Institute.

Patients who took the therapy lost weight and recorded some of the best gains in quality of life and physical improvement ever seen in this type of a study.

The interim update in heart failure reflects results from 10 clinical trials that have been published since the 2021 ESC Guidelines were released.

Attendees should look out for results from the STEP HFpEF program and HEART-FID trial at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2023, said Stephen Greene, MD, Duke University Medical Center and the Duke Clinical Research Institute.

Ahead of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2023, John McMurray, MD, FRCP, FESC, professor of medical cardiology at the University of Glasgow, previews some themes and important topics that will be discussed at the meeting.

The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) 2023 Congress runs August 25-28 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

A simple intervention to get people to use salt substitute and cut their stroke risk—along with other cardiovascular events—has implications for developing countries with diets high in salt that have high rates of chronic disease.

In patients with heart failure and diabetes, sotagliflozin can lower glucose quite well, even when patients are facing suboptimal glomerular filtration rates, noted Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, MPH, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

In a paper being presented during ESC Congress 2021, authors from the University of Copenhagen use a registry to mimic 2 well-known trials, finding explanations for some, but not all, of the gap in risk reduction between them.

Both REDUCE-IT and STRENGTH recruited people with very high triglycerides and tested different formulations of omega-3 fatty acids, but the results were different. About 12% of the difference can be explained, noted Børge G. Nordestgaard, MD, DMSc, Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Herlev and Gentofte Hospital, Copenhagen University Hospital, but 13% cannot be, given that REDUCE-IT had a 25% reduced risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

There was a reduction in both the need for dialysis and progression to end-stage renal disease; finerenone was really well tolerated, stated Bertram Pitt, MD, professor of medicine emeritus, University of Michigan School of Medicine.

With finerenone being a targeted therapy, data show there may be an additive cardiorenal benefit when it is coadministered with a sodium glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitor, noted Dipti Itchhaporia, MD, FACC, FAHA, FESC, president of the American College of Cardiology.

Whatever your theory of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors seem to be attacking every one, noted Javed Butler, MD, MPH, MBA, University of Mississippi.

A new study unveiled on day 2 of ESC Congress 2021 showed finerenone, a nonsteroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist, offers benefits to patients with mild to moderate CKD and type 2 diabetes.

Findings from 5 studies presented on day 1 of ESC Congress 2021 indicate that there is still much to be learned on the complex interaction among COVID-19 infection, cardiovascular care, and heart failure.

Sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor use in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) has generated great enthusiasm, noted Rudolf de Boer, MD, PhD, clinical cardiologist and professor of translational cardiology, University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands.

EMPEROR-Preserved represents the first trial to show unequivocal benefits of any drug on major heart failure outcomes in patients with heart failure and preserved ejection fraction, the lead investigator said.

The composite end point of cardiovascular death and heart failure hospitalization was reduced by 21%, which is highly statistically significant and clinically meaningful, noted Stefan Anker, MD, PhD, FESC, principal investigator of EMPEROR-Preserved.

The 5-year update could help solidify the role of sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors in treating heart failure, years after the first evidence of their effectiveness emerged.