Gilard and Wijns reflect on the life of Alain Cribier, who revolutionized the management of patients with valvular disease.

After myocardial infarction, the heart secretes small extracellular vesicles with pro-neoplastic properties that can accelerate tumour growth when taken up by cancer cells.

In ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, the role of interventional modification of thrombi in the coronary arteries before stenting is controversial. However, innovations in stroke intervention have sparked renewed interest in thrombus modification approaches. We discuss current and emerging techniques to extract or disperse thrombi, aiming to reduce downstream embolization, microvascular obstruction and myocardial injury.

A new study identifies a hormone that is secreted by the gut in response to cholesterol absorption and can inhibit cholesterol synthesis in the liver, which prevents an increase in circulating cholesterol levels.

In patients with carotid artery disease, the presence of microplastics and nanoplastics in the carotid plaque is associated with an increased risk of death or major cardiovascular events compared with patients in whom microplastics and nanoplastics were not detected.

In this Tools of the Trade article, Trivett discusses the potential of long-read sequencing in generating high-quality reference genomes of animal models of cardiovascular disease.