Cardiovascular Risk Heterogeneity in Adults with Diabetes: Selective Use of Coronary Artery Calcium in Statin Use Decision-making.

Current American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association guidelines recommend statin therapy for all patients with diabetes between the ages of 40 and 75, including those without cardiovascular disease (CVD). While diabetes is a major CVD risk factor, not all patients with diabetes have an equal risk of CVD. Thus, a more risk-based approach warrants consideration when recommending statin therapy for the primary prevention of CVD.

What Clinicians Need to Know About the Cardiovascular Effects of the Most Recent Classes of Drugs Used for Type 2 Diabetes.

The treatment of cardiovascular disease in patients with diabetes has seen a sea change in recent years with the development of novel antihyperglycemic agents. The impact of sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs), two medication classes introduced in the United States in the wake of increased scrutiny by the US Food and Drug Administration on cardiovascular disease and antihyperglycemic agents, highlight this progression. In recent trials, SGLT2 inhibitors have demonstrated significant reductions in admissions for heart failure in patients with established cardiovascular disease and those at risk of cardiovascular disease, as well as significant reductions in major adverse cardiovascular events for those with established cardiovascular disease.

Intermittent cardiac troponin-I screening is an effective means of surveillance for a perioperative myocardial infarction.

Objective: Several studies suggest that cardiac troponin-I (cTn-I) is a more sensitive indicator of cardiac injury compared with other biochemical markers of injury, but the strategy with the highest diagnostic yield (true positive and true negative) for perioperative surveillance is unknown. The authors undertook a prospective evaluation of the perioperative incidence of myocardial infarction (MI) and evaluated surveillance strategies for the diagnosis of MI.

Design: Prospective, cohort study.

N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide for predicting coronary disease and left ventricular hypertrophy in asymptomatic CKD not requiring dialysis.

Background: N-Terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) level predicts underlying heart disease in the general population. However, because NT-proBNP clearance may depend on renal function, the significance of an elevated level in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) without cardiac symptoms is uncertain. We sought to determine whether there is an association between NT-proBNP level and coronary artery disease (CAD) and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) in this population.

Anti-atherosclerotic effects of statins: lessons from prevention trials.

Statins are best-known for their lipid-lowering effects and have been shown to significantly impact the natural progression of coronary atherosclerosis. The mechanism through which they exert this effect is thought to be primarily due to their ability to reduce low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels. However, there is increasing evidence that statins exert a myriad of other beneficial effects on the vascular wall, thus altering the course of atherosclerotic disease.