ESC: European Society of Cardiology

The 5-year update could help solidify the role of sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors in treating heart failure, years after the first evidence of their effectiveness emerged.

There are incredible data for sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors, and this is a great class of medicines that is vastly underutilized, stated Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, MPH, executive director of interventional cardiovascular programs at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Heart & Vascular Center and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

The lack of approved treatments for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction has represented a significant unmet need for a condition that affects 50% of patients with heart failure, including large subgroups, such as older women.

There will be new ESC heart failure guidelines and presentation of data from EMPEROR-Preserved and EMPEROR-Pooled, noted Rudolf de Boer, MD, PhD, of University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands.

Providers need to focus on detecting and treating cardiovascular complications in at-risk patients, and not get lost in the fact they have COVID-19, said Manan Pareek, MD, PhD, FAHA, FESC, an internal medicine hospital resident at the Yale University School of Medicine.

If you change the narrative and package SGLT-2 inhibitors as a form of cardiovascular risk modulation, cardiologists may be more likely to get involved in diabetes management, said Javed Butler, MD, MPH, MBA, chairman for the Department of Medicine at the University of Mississippi.

During the surge of the pandemic in the Northeast, we saw about a 40% reduction in cardiovascular admissions, while there was a higher rate of mortality among patients who came in, said Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, MPH, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital Heart & Vascular Center and Harvard Medical School.

It is imperative individuals with cardiovascular diseases remain active despite COVID-19 lockdowns, said Antonio Pelliccia, MD, senior consultant and chief of cardiology at the Institute of Sports Medicine and Science, of the Italian National Olympic Committee.

Below are selected abstracts presented at the European Society of Cardiology 2020 Congress, which was held in a virtual format due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

The first study of its kind reports that patients should keep taking well-known heart medications.

It's a great time to be a doctor treating patients with heart failure, given the development of 2 fantastic new treatments within the space of 5 years, said John McMurray, MD, FRCP, FESC, professor of medical cardiology in the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow.

The new guidelines can help cardiologists better advise patients with CVD on physical activity, said Antonio Pelliccia, MD, senior consultant and chief of cardiology at the Institute of Sports Medicine and Science, of the Italian National Olympic Committee.

A study finds that a partner's participation in a lifestyle change program can be a key to success, especially for weight loss.

It's interesting that we saw such a clear U-shaped mortality curve for serum bicarbonate levels in a patient population where we usually don't think about measuring bicarbonate, said Manan Pareek, MD, PhD, FAHA, FESC, an internal medicine hospital resident at the Yale University School of Medicine.

Having 2 trials that both show benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors in heart failure hospitalizations can only encourage the use of these drugs, said John McMurray, MD, FRCP, FESC, professor of medical cardiology in the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow.

Advances in imaging have made assessment of atherosclerosis non-invasive, while the EVAPORATE trial demonstrates how cardiac CT can assist in looking at a host of different therapies, said Matthew Budoff, MD, professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and investigator at The Lundquist Institute.

Results from the second major renal outcomes trial for an SGLT2 inhibitor affirm the role of the class in preventing renal decline and kidney failure.

The PARALLAX study points to potential benefits from sacubitril/valsartan in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, which has no approved treatments.

It's very important to take the EMPEROR-Reduced and DAPA-HF trials together as being complementary, said Milton Packer, MD, of Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas and University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.

In this most recent analysis of REDUCE-IT, results show a consistent benefit favoring icosapent ethyl versus placebo irrespective of the actual statin type, said Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, MPH, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital Heart & Vascular Center and Harvard Medical School.

Early rhythm control was associated with a marked reduction in cardiovascular deaths among at-risk stroke patients, said Paulus Kirchhof, MD, director of the department of cardiology at the University Heart and Vascular Center UKE Hamburg, and professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences at the University of Birmingham.

When results from the EMPA-REG OUTCOME trial came out, nobody was expecting empagliflozin to have a particularly robust benefit on heart failure and several questions were raised as a result, said Javed Butler, MD, MPH, MBA, chairman for the Department of Medicine at the University of Mississippi.

Results from the phase 3 EXPLORER-HCM trial show mavacamten may finally offer a therapeutic solution for patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

A new study shows that empagliflozin, the diabetes drug that set off a market frenzy 5 years ago, is on par with dapagliflozin for certain heart failure patients.

Through EVAPORATE, we've been able to show at 18 months that patients taking icosapent ethyl (Vascepa) have less plaque and that there is some atherosclerosis regression, marking mechanisms of benefit for these patients, said Matthew Budoff, MD, professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and investigator at The Lundquist Institute.

A new analysis from the REDUCE-IT trial finds that cardiovascular benefits of Vascepa are consistent no matter what type of statin a patient takes for cholesterol.

A study finds that too few of patients classified as very high risk under European criteria are meeting 2019 LDL cholesterol targets because they don't get enough medication.

Christi Deaton, PhD, RN, FAHA, FESC, of the University of Cambridge discusses the necessary steps for patients to take in order to prevent cardiovascular conditions.

Digital health, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and precision medicine are the areas where there is the most excitement in innovations for cardiovascular care, said John Rumsfeld, MD, PhD, chief innovation officer at the American College of Cardiology.

There are a number of environmental factors with significant public health impacts that people don't necessarily think of; for instance, products out in the market haven't necesarily been tested for safety, which comsumers should keep in mind, explained Jeanette Stingone, PhD, of Mount Sinai Health System.