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Cardiac Wire #345
Women’s CVD Surge, Gut-Brain-Heart, and CV Imaging Radiation
Read the latest issue
Surgeries & Interventions February 23, 2026
Market Competition Drives TAVR Overutilization February 23, 2026
Whether or not a patient receives TAVR over SAVR might be more influenced by market forces than clinical evidence, after a recent study found that the more competitive the hospital market, the higher the TAVR likelihood, regardless of guideline recommendations. Examining 137k patients undergoing aortic valve replacement across seven states, researchers calculated hospital market competition […]
Heart Failure February 19, 2026
Rethinking Hyperkalemia Care in Patients With Heart Failure February 19, 2026
By Ravi Dhingra, MD, MPH, FACC, FAHASponsored By AstraZeneca Renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitor (RAASi) therapy is a cornerstone of heart failure (HF) management, yet concerns about hyperkalemia (HK) can limit its use.1 In chronic HF management, a long-term approach to addressing HK is an important consideration for healthcare providers. An observational study2 utilizing Optum’s de-identified Market Clarity Data […]
Surgeries & Interventions February 19, 2026
Evolut Low Risk, A Tale of Two Outcomes February 19, 2026
We might need to reconsider the concept of a TAVR-first strategy for low-risk aortic stenosis patients, after extended results from the Evolut Low Risk trial showed that reintervention rates at seven years were considerably higher in TAVR recipients compared to surgical replacement. As has been the case for each yearly follow-up, the trial examined 1.4k […]
Cardiology Pharmaceuticals February 16, 2026
DAPT Drugs Matter to Diabetics with Multivessel CAD February 16, 2026
The debate over which dual antiplatelet therapy is best for diabetic CAD patients might favor generic prasugrel over ticagrelor (AstraZeneca’s Brilinta), after the TUXEDO-2 trial demonstrated that ticagrelor isn’t equivalent to prasugrel in this complex patient group. The TUXEDO-2 trial enrolled 1.8k participants across 66 clinical sites in India and randomized patients undergoing PCI to […]
More Stories
Artificial Intelligence February 12, 2026
Google’s AMIE Shows Promise for Cardiology Care February 12, 2026
AI scribes and LLMs’ potential impact on cardiology just became a lot clearer after a Stanford RCT published in Nature Medicine demonstrated that Google’s AMIE system helped general cardiologists better diagnose and plan treatment for rare heart conditions. Researchers enrolled nine general cardiologists to evaluate 107 patients with suspected genetic cardiovascular disease. Each case was […]
Cardiology Pharmaceuticals February 9, 2026
Statin Side Effects Might Not be So Bad February 9, 2026
New research in The Lancet suggests that statin underutilization might stem from unfounded safety fears rather than actual risk, after researchers found that 62 out of 66 the drugs’ package-listed adverse effects lack reliable evidence. In an attempt to clear statins’ name, researchers analyzed data from 19 large RCTs to distinguish real statin-associated risks from […]
Cardiology Business February 5, 2026
Medtronic Acquires CathWorks, Expands Cath Lab Presence February 5, 2026
Using AI algorithms to diagnose and assess coronary artery disease for intervention is about to become more mainstream after medtech giant, Medtronic, agreed to exercise its acquisition rights on AI FFR specialist, CathWorks, for $585M up-front. Until now CathWorks’ FFRangio has only been available in the U.S., Europe, and Japan through Medtronic’s distribution network, but […]
Cardiology Pharmaceuticals February 2, 2026
CKM’s True Medication Burden February 2, 2026
As cardiology begins to look at the spectrum of cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic disease, new research in JAMA suggests that CKM treatments might face serious adoption challenges due to the sheer number of Americans who both have the disease and qualify for medications. In a search for just how many eligible patients are out there, researchers examined FDA-approved […]
Heart Failure January 29, 2026
Telemedicine’s Unintended HF Consequences January 29, 2026
Heart failure telemedicine doesn’t seem to be lining up evidence-based care after a recent Stanford Medicine analysis revealed that remotely-managed HF patients received less diagnostic testing and saw serious dips in guideline-directed medical therapy. With the rising popularity of remote patient management in cardiology, Stanford researchers decided to explore telemedicine’s HF impact by tracking 44 […]
Heart Failure January 26, 2026
Advancing Heart Failure Care: Timely Referral and Life-prolonging Strategies with HeartMate 3 Left Ventricular Assist Device January 26, 2026
Excerpt from Article by Dr. Sanjeev Gulati, Radcliffe Cardiology 2025; e1. Heart failure (HF) remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally, and advanced HF represents a severe stage of the disease affecting more than 64 million people across the world with rising prevalence.1,2 Most of us are very experienced in the role that […]
Cardiology Policy January 26, 2026
Women Need Lower LV Thresholds for AV Surgery January 26, 2026
New multicenter data published in JAMA suggests that surgery for aortic regurgitation may need to be done earlier than current guidelines recommend, with lower LV size thresholds and possibly different cutoffs for men and women. Studying several cohorts, researchers followed 808 patients with symptomatic AR and preserved LVEF with a median 7-year follow-up examining mortality […]
Cardiac Imaging January 22, 2026
IVUS and OCT Better Than Angiography for PCI January 22, 2026
A recent JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions analysis of 17 randomized trials suggests that intravascular cardiac imaging (intravascular ultrasound or optical coherence tomography) significantly reduces major cardiac events compared with angiography alone when guiding PCI with drug-eluting stents. To help clarify intravascular imaging’s benefits, researchers synthesized data from 17 RCTs of drug-eluting stent PCIs for complex lesions, […]
Cardiology Business January 15, 2026
FTC Wins Lawsuit Against Edwards Over JenaValve January 15, 2026
Following a six-month antitrust fight, Edwards Lifesciences has been forced to walk away from its $945M attempt to buy fledgling valve developer JenaValve after a U.S. district court ruled in favor of the FTC’s decision to block the move. The FTC’s big issue didn’t just start Edwards acquiring JenaValve, rather it was the short timespan […]
Cardiogenetics January 12, 2026
Y Chromosome Loss and MI Risk January 12, 2026
We already know that loss or mutation in genes can lead to increased cardiovascular risk or even cause some diseases, but what about losing a whole chromosome? New research in JACC suggests that men who lose pieces of their Y chromosome as they age could be at greater risk of heart attacks. Researchers measured the […]
Cardiology Testing January 8, 2026
HF Frailty Could Be Simpler than We Think January 8, 2026
A new registry analysis out of Japan suggests we may be able to simplify how we classify heart failure frailty without losing accuracy, allowing us to screen for HF mortality risk in faster and more practical ways. To see how CFS stacks up against comprehensive physical testing, researchers categorized 3.9k patients hospitalized with HF into […]
Cardiology Pharmaceuticals January 5, 2026
Aficamten Approved, Enter a New HCM Contender January 5, 2026
After years of dedicated research and careful science, Cytokinetics’ aficamten (Myqorzo) is officially FDA approved for obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, marking the company’s first-ever regulatory approval and ending BMS mavacamten’s reign as the only oHCM treatment. The FDA’s decision stemmed from the SEQUOIA-HCM trial, which demonstrated aficamten’s efficacy over 24 weeks in symptomatic obstructive HCM patients […]
Cardiology Business December 18, 2025
Philips Acquires SpectraWAVE, Making Azurion Even Better December 18, 2025
After taking a two and a half year break since its last acquisition, Philips acquired SpectraWAVE for its HyperVue and X1-FFR technologies in a bid to extend its intravascular imaging lead. At the center of this acquisition, Philips’ Azurion is an image-guided therapy platform that already serves 7.6M patients annually. It combines coronary imaging and […]
Cardiac Imaging December 15, 2025
CathWorks FFRangio Goes Beyond Physiology December 15, 2025
Despite society guidelines and extensive clinical evidence demonstrating that traditional wire-based coronary physiology improves outcomes and reduces costs compared to angiography alone1-2, physiology continues to be disappointingly underutilized globally due to the inconvenience and time it adds to the procedure. The novel CathWorks FFRangio System combines artificial intelligence and advanced computational science to obtain physiologic […]
Surgeries & Interventions December 11, 2025
CAD and Treating it With PCI has No Impact on TAVR December 11, 2025
New post-hoc results from SCOPE I suggest that patients who have obstructive coronary artery disease as well as symptomatic severe aortic stenosis have similar outcomes to patients without CAD three years after TAVR. The study also suggests performing PCI in parallel to TAVR provides no benefit to these patients. But does the presence of CAD […]
Obesity Care December 8, 2025
Childhood Obesity CHD Risks Might Be Reversible December 8, 2025
Childhood obesity’s cardiovascular consequences might be reversible with timely intervention, after a Swedish study demonstrated that children who were overweight but achieved normal weight by young adulthood had similar coronary heart disease risk to their “never-overweight” peers. The BMI Epidemiology Study analysis linked health records to nationwide registries for 103k people in Sweden to track […]
Heart Failure December 4, 2025
How the Causes of Heart Failure Have Changed Over 35 Years December 4, 2025
A new NHANES analysis adds to the idea that heart failure might be more of a metabolic disease than just a cardiac problem, revealing that HF prevalence has remained constant over the last 35 years as ischemic causes decreased and metabolic factors increased. Examining over 30 years of data, the study analyzed 83.5k ambulatory participants […]
Cardiology Testing December 1, 2025
Risk Equations Fail Younger MI Patients December 1, 2025
Prevention guidelines might be failing younger patients, after a new JACC Advances analysis of first-MI patients under 65 revealed that over half would not have qualified for statins just two days before their cardiac event based on their ASCVD Risk Estimator Plus and PREVENT equations scores. Assessing these equations’ applicability to younger people, researchers examined […]