Cardiac rehabilitation: Major benefits and minor risks
In the current issue of Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine, McMahon and colleagues provide a detailed overview of the major benefits and minor risks of cardiac rehabilitation (CR), especially in the post-acute care of coronary artery disease (CAD), valvular heart disease, cardiac transplant, and heart failure. They opine that employment of a CR regimen increases the maximal amount of oxygen that an individual can utilize during exercise (VO2max), which helps to promote weight loss and decrease blood pressure, and has also been associated with improvement in endothelial function. (Source: Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine)
Source: Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine - March 7, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Jennifer Foster, Steven F. Lewis, Charles H. Hennekens Source Type: research
Editorial commentary: Non-invasive assessment of myocardial fibrosis: Focus on the substrate of ventricular arrhythmias to improve risk stratification
Myocardial fibrosis is recognized as the main substrate for ventricular arrhythmias in patients with structural heart disease of different etiologies [1]. However, fibrosis assessment is not included in current strategies of risk stratification for sudden death. Instead, our decision to implant a primary prevention implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) in patients with heart failure is mainly based on left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), a marker of disease severity and not of the arrhythmic risk. (Source: Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine)
Source: Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine - February 24, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Andrea Di Marco Source Type: research
Editorial commentary: New drugs for diabetes: Finally safety and cardiovascular efficacy
Diabetes mellitus has emerged as the epidemic of the modern age [1]. Concomitant with this, we have witnessed a rise in the complications of this condition, with diabetes now the number one cause of end stage renal failure in developed nations and ~75% of deaths in the overall diabetic population being related to cardiovascular disease, primarily stroke, myocardial infarction and heart failure [2]. (Source: Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine)
Source: Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine - February 24, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Kim A. Connelly Source Type: research
Non-invasive assessment of myocardial fibrosis: focus on the substrate of ventricular arrhythmias to improve risk stratification
Myocardial fibrosis is recognized as the main substrate for ventricular arrhythmias in patients with structural heart disease of different etiologies [1]. However, fibrosis assessment is not included in current strategies of risk stratification for sudden death. Instead, our decision to implant a primary prevention implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) in patients with heart failure is mainly based on left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), a marker of disease severity and not of the arrhythmic risk. (Source: Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine)
Source: Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine - February 23, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Andrea Di Marco Source Type: research
New drugs for Diabetes: Finally safety and cardiovascular efficacy
Diabetes mellitus has emerged as the epidemic of the modern age [1]. Concomitant with this, we have witnessed a rise in the complications of this condition, with diabetes now the number one cause of end stage renal failure in developed nations and ~75% of deaths in the overall diabetic population being related to cardiovascular disease, primarily stroke, myocardial infarction and heart failure [2]. (Source: Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine)
Source: Trends in Cardiovascular Medicine - February 23, 2017 Category: Cardiology Authors: Kim A. Connelly Source Type: research
