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Atrial fibrillation is the most common sustained arrhythmia and imposes a substantial burden on patients and health-care providers. Clinical evidence suggests that antiarrhythmic therapy to restore and maintain sinus rhythm (rhythm control) can reduce adverse cardiovascular outcomes in patients with new-onset atrial fibrillation. As a result, a paradigm shift towards rhythm control over rate control therapy is emerging, increasing the clinical need for effective and safe antiarrhythmic drugs.
Heart valve replacement in newborn babies remains an unsolved problem because currently used heart valve implants do not grow. This lack of implant growth mandates serial re-operations until adult-size valve implants can be fitted. Partial heart transplantation is a new approach to solve this problem by transplanting only the part of the heart that contains the necessary valve.
A new approach to modify the epigenome can lead to durable silencing of Pcsk9 in mice, thereby reducing plasma LDL-cholesterol levels, according to a study published in Nature.
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.
A metabolic product of excess niacin promotes vascular inflammation in preclinical models and is associated with increased rates of major adverse cardiovascular events in humans.
In this Tools of the Trade article, Olivera describes a rat model of pre-elampsia that has been instrumental for investigating potential long-term cardiovascular effects in offspring.
Rebecca Gilchrist discusses the study that demonstrated the long-term modulation of ventricular repolarization by the sequence of electrical activation in the human heart and established the concept of cardiac memory.
Coronary microvascular obstruction and dysfunction (CMVO) is common in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) despite prompt reperfusion. In this Review, the authors discuss the mechanisms of CMVO as well as strategies to reduce its incidence and improve prognosis.
In this Review, Tsimikas and co-workers re-examine the role of lipoprotein(a) in the regulation of platelet function and propose areas for future research to define its clinical relevance for cardiovascular disease.
Macrophages in atherosclerotic plaques can undergo apoptosis and several forms of regulated necrosis, including necroptosis, pyroptosis and ferroptosis. In this Review, De Meyer and colleagues describe the various forms of programmed macrophage death in atherosclerosis and the potential therapeutic implications.
In this Review, Mably and Wang summarize the expression, functions and molecular mechanisms of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in cardiac hypertrophy and failure. The authors also discuss lncRNAs as novel targets for the diagnosis and treatment of these conditions.
