Matters of the heart: late-breaking news from the American College of Cardiology

Welcome to today’s podcast, covering American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions & Expo. From 6–8 April 2024, in Atlanta, Georgia, over 17,000 cardiovascular professionals from around the globe came together to debate and discuss practice-changing science and innovations. Today, I was able to interview 2 of the late-breaking trialists.

Firstly, we speak with Prof. Gregg Stone, MD, a professor of cardiology and population health sciences at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, opened the festivities by presenting findings from RELIEVE-HF, a randomised trial designed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of treating heart failure patients with an interatrial shunt. Prof. Stone and colleagues randomised more than 500 patients in North America, Europe, Israel, Australia, and New Zeeland to either receive the V-Wave Ventura Interatrial Shunt System—a small device designed to reduce pressure on the left atrium and the lungs—or undergo a placebo procedure. The results are clear, and keep listening to hear his interpretation of the results.

Next, we speak with Prof. Javed Butler, MD, president of the Baylor Scott and White Research Institute, who presented results from the EMPACT-MI randomised trial, which examined treating patients with empagliflozin following a heart attack. Treatment with empagliflozin did not significantly impact the study’s primary endpoint—the combination of heart failure hospitalisations and all-cause mortality—but it did appear to dramatically improve heart failure hospitalisation rates when tracked on their own. These results add to our understanding of SGLT2 inhibitors and contribute to the body of evidence across 6 clinical studies examining the potential for empagliflozin to impact major outcomes in a broad population of adults with heart failure, chronic kidney disease or type 2 diabetes.

Enjoy listening!



Posted on 23 April, 20246 May, 2024