Letter from the Advisory Board

Dear Practitioner,

We are pleased to share with you highlights from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2017 held in Barcelona, Spain.

The featured article provides a topline summary of the new guidelines released by the ESC during the Congress. It covers the management of acute myocardial infarction (MI) in patients presenting with ST-segment elevation, the diagnosis and treatment of peripheral arterial diseases (PAD), the management of valvular heart disease, and a focused update on dual antiplatelet therapy in patients.

A number of highly anticipated and potentially practice-changing clinical trials were presented at ESC Congress 2017, including the results from the COMPASS, CANTOS, and ORION-1 studies. COMPASS extended the results from ATLAS TIMI-51 demonstrating that rivaroxaban 2.5 mg BID plus aspirin was superior to aspirin alone for prevention of cardiovascular (CV) death, stroke, or MI in patients with stable CAD or PAD. The CANTOS study of canakinumab, a human monoclonal antibody directed against IL-1β, in patients with CAD and residual inflammatory risk was the first trial to target inflammation to reduce CV events. The results showed that canakinumab significantly reduced the risk of CV events when added to a background of optimal medical therapy without affecting lipids, they also help to validate the hypothesis of a connection between inflammation and atherosclerosis. Furthermore, a reduction in fatal lung cancers was an added benefit although tempered somewhat by an increase in deaths due to infection. The ORION-1 study showed that inclisiran, an oligonucleotide that interferes with the mRNA encoding for the PCSK9 protein, delivered at a dose of 300 mg subcutaneously twice per year, lowered low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) by approximately 50% for up to 1 year in patients with high CV risk and elevated LDL-C.

In addition to the results from Hot Line session clinical trials and registry updates, you will also find information on selected areas of CV medicine including cholesterol-lowering therapy for primary and secondary prevention, a look at future therapies for heart failure, and the prevention and management of acute stroke.

We hope that you find the articles and practical perspectives that are contained in the pages of this issue of ESC Congress 2017 in Review helpful in integrating this new information into your clinical practice.

 

Robert P. Giugliano, MD, SM
Cardiovascular Division Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Associate Professor in Medicine Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA, USA

Marc P. Bonaca, MD, MPH
Cardiovascular Division Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Assistant Professor in Medicine Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Jacob A. Udell, MD, MPH
Cardiovascular Division Women’s College Hospital
Toronto General Hospital
Assistant Professor of Medicine University of Toronto
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Nihar R. Desai, MD, MPH
Cardiovascular Division Yale-New Haven Hospital
Assistant Professor Medicine Yale School of Medicine
New Haven, Connecticut, USA

Matthew Cavender, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Medicine
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

Erin A. Bohula May, MD, PhD
Cardiovascular Division Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Instructor in Medicine Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Giulia Magnani, MD, PhD
Cardiovascular Division Parma University Hospital
University of Parma, Parma, Italy

Carlos Aguiar, MD, FESC
Department of Cardiology
Hospital de Santa Cruz
Carnaxide, Portugal

Jan Steffel, MD, FESC, FHRS
Department of Cardiology
University Heart Center Zurich
University Hospital Zurich
Zurich, Switzerland



Posted on 30 August 201717 March 2021