Sex Disparities in the Management of Acute Coronary Syndromes: Insights From the Veterans Affairs Clinical Assessment, Reporting, and Tracking Program.

Background: Previous work has demonstrated disparities in the management of cardiovascular disease among men and women. We sought to evaluate these disparities and their associations with clinical outcomes among patients admitted with acute coronary syndromes to the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System.

Methods And Results: We identified all patients that were discharged with acute coronary syndromes within the Veterans Affairs Healthcare System from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2022.

Gender Differences in the Pursuit of Cardiac Electrophysiology Training in North America.

Background: Despite the increase in the number of female physicians across most specialties within cardiology, <10% of clinical cardiac electrophysiology (EP) fellows are women.

Objectives: This study sought to determine the factors that influence fellows-in-training (FITs) to pursue EP as a career choice and whether this differs by gender.

Methods: The authors conducted an online multiple-choice survey through the American College of Cardiology to assess the decision factors that influence FITs in the United States and Canada to pursue cardiovascular subspecialties.

The DISCO study-Does Interventionalists' Sex impact Coronary Outcomes?

Objectives: To examine the association of operator sex with appropriateness and outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Background: Recent studies suggest that physician sex may impact outcomes for specific patient cohorts. There are no data evaluating the impact of operator sex on PCI outcomes.

Management of Women With Acquired Cardiovascular Disease From Pre-Conception Through Pregnancy and Postpartum: JACC Focus Seminar 3/5.

Acquired cardiovascular conditions are a leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality. A growing number of pregnant women have acquired and heritable cardiovascular conditions and cardiovascular risk factors. As the average age of childbearing women increases, the prevalence of acute coronary syndromes, cardiomyopathy, and other cardiovascular complications in pregnancy are also expected to increase.

Effects of Home-Based Cardiac Rehabilitation on Time to Enrollment and Functional Status in Patients With Ischemic Heart Disease.

Background Cardiac rehabilitation is an established performance measure for adults with ischemic heart disease, but patient participation is remarkably low. Home-based cardiac rehabilitation (HBCR) may be more practical and feasible, but evidence regarding its efficacy is limited. We sought to compare the effects of HBCR versus facility-based cardiac rehabilitation (FBCR) on functional status in patients with ischemic heart disease.

Perceptions on Diversity in Cardiology: A Survey of Cardiology Fellowship Training Program Directors.

Background The lack of diversity in the cardiovascular physician workforce is thought to be an important driver of racial and sex disparities in cardiac care. Cardiology fellowship program directors play a critical role in shaping the cardiology workforce. Methods and Results To assess program directors' perceptions about diversity and barriers to enhancing diversity, the authors conducted a survey of 513 fellowship program directors or associate directors from 193 unique adult cardiology fellowship training programs.

Risk of obstructive coronary artery disease and major adverse cardiac events in patients with noncoronary atherosclerosis: Insights from the Veterans Affairs Clinical Assessment, Reporting, and Tracking (CART) Program.

Unlabelled: We sought to determine the risk of obstructive coronary artery disease (oCAD) associated with noncoronary atherosclerosis (cerebrovascular disease [CVD] or peripheral arterial disease [PAD]) and major adverse cardiac events following percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Methods: Rates of the angiographic end point of oCAD were compared among patients with and without noncoronary atherosclerosis undergoing coronary angiography within the Veterans Health Administration between October 2007 and August 2015. The primary angiographic end point of oCAD was defined as left main stenosis ≥50% or any stenosis ≥70% in 1, 2, or 3 vessels.

Sex Differences in Veterans' Cardiovascular Health.

In the U.S. civilian population, sex differences have been identified in cardiovascular health; these differences have been used to inform care.

ACC/AATS/AHA/ASE/ASNC/HRS/SCAI/SCCT/SCMR/STS 2019 Appropriate Use Criteria for Multimodality Imaging in the Assessment of Cardiac Structure and Function in Nonvalvular Heart Disease: A Report of the American College of Cardiology Appropriate Use Criteria Task Force, American Association for Thoracic Surgery, American Heart Association, American Society of Echocardiography, American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, Heart Rhythm Society, Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography, Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

This document is the second of 2 companion appropriate use criteria (AUC) documents developed by the American College of Cardiology, American Association for Thoracic Surgery, American Heart Association, American Society of Echocardiography, American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, Heart Rhythm Society, Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography, Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, and Society of Thoracic Surgeons. The first document addresses the evaluation and use of multimodality imaging in the diagnosis and management of valvular heart disease, whereas this document addresses this topic with regard to structural (nonvalvular) heart disease. While dealing with different subjects, the 2 documents do share a common structure and feature some clinical overlap.

Sex Disparities in Authorship Order of Cardiology Scientific Publications.

Background: Despite advances in the representation of women in medical training, women continue to be underrepresented in cardiology, academic medicine, and more specifically, in senior positions within academic medicine. Identifying disparities in research productivity and acknowledgment can highlight barriers to female representation in academic cardiology leadership, as well as in academic promotion.

Methods And Results: This bibliometric analysis included all authors of original research articles between 1980 and 2017 from 3 high-impact cardiology journals ( Journal of the American College of Cardiology, Circulation, and European Heart Journal).

Career Preferences and Perceptions of Cardiology Among US Internal Medicine Trainees: Factors Influencing Cardiology Career Choice.

Importance: Few data exist on internal medicine trainees' selection of cardiology training, although this is important for meeting future cardiology workforce needs.

Objective: To discover trainees' professional development preferences and perceptions of cardiology, and their relationship to trainees' career choice.

Design, Setting, And Participants: We surveyed trainees to discover their professional development preferences and perceptions of cardiology and the influence of those perceptions and preferences on the trainees' career choices.

Regional cardiac function analysis from tagged MRI images. Comparison of techniques: Harmonic-Phase (HARP) versus Sinusoidal-Modeling (SinMod) analysis.

Cardiac MRI tagging is a valuable technique for evaluating regional heart function. Currently, there are a number of different techniques for analyzing the tagged images. Specifically, k-space-based analysis techniques showed to be much faster than image-based techniques, where harmonic-phase (HARP) and sine-wave modeling (SinMod) stand as two famous techniques of the former group, which are frequently used in clinical studies.

Treatment of Coronary Artery Disease in Women.

Despite advances in the diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease (CAD), gender-related disparities continue to exist, and ischemic heart disease mortality in women remains higher than in men. This review will highlight gender-specific differences in the treatment of CAD that may impact outcomes for women. Further studies are needed to clarify the unique pathophysiology of CAD in women and, in turn, create more specific guidelines for its diagnosis, management, and treatment in this patient population.

Association of Veterans Health Administration Home-Based Programs With Access to and Participation in Cardiac Rehabilitation.

This study examines whether implementing new home-based cardiac rehabilitation programs is associated with cardiac rehabilitation participation in the Veterans Health Administration.