Heads-Up! A Caregiver's Perspective on Lewy Body Dementia.

This narrative review takes a personal approach in detailing the progression of cognitive decline in a loved one, and the measures taken to care for the patient. The author provides suggestions for a compassionate care plan and advice for clinicians helpful to both patient and caregiver.

Evaluating Academic Physicians' Bibliographies: Criteria and Fairness.

In the academic professions, publications are essential for high-stakes decisions about employment, recognition, and promotion. Therefore, impartial frameworks are needed for evaluating the rigor of scholarly physicians' bibliographies. This article provides objective criteria for evaluating bibliographies based on author position, publication type, impact, volume, thematic focus, and trajectory.

Arrhythmogenic Mitral Valve Prolapse Revisited: A Not Uncommon Cause of Youthful Sudden Death in Athletes and Women.

Background: Sudden deaths (SDs) in young people, including competitive athletes, albeit uncommon, are usually attributable to genetic, congenital or acquired cardiovascular conditions. However, it is under-appreciated that mitral valve prolapse (MVP), a relatively common valvular heart disease, is associated with SD in this youthful population.

Methods: Forty-three MVP-related SDs were identified from 2 large cardiovascular registries with pathologic, clinical, and demographic findings reported.

Justice-Involved Status and In-Hospital Mortality Among Nonelderly Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2021.

Objective: The purpose of this research is to examine the role of justice-involved status on in-hospital mortality among nonelderly adults during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study used data from the 2021 State Inpatient Databases for 20 US states, which included discharges from general acute care hospitals among adults aged 18-64 years hospitalized for at least 24 hours. The main outcome was all-cause in-hospital mortality and the primary comparison was justice-involved status.

Inclusion of Dental Services in Medicare to Improve Oral and General Health for Older Americans.

Poor oral health negatively impacts overall health, quality of life, and well-being. Increasing evidence suggests that provision of basic dental care for elderly Americans would improve outcomes for a variety of systemic diseases and reduce the overall cost of healthcare. As a result, recent changes have been implemented to include some dental benefits in the Medicare program.

Food Is Medicine: The Time Is Now.

Virtually every professional society globally now endorses a plant-forward diet that is lower in fat and processed foods as key components of disease prevention and health promotion. It is characterized by whole grain foods, and predominantly made of fresh foods. With healthcare expenditures at record levels across the globe, implementing a treatment plan that has larger magnitude health improvements than nearly any known medicine, that is extremely inexpensive, and has the power to not only improve human health but also planetary health is critical.

Blood Pressure/Heart Rate-Derived Ratios as Indices of Health and Cardiovascular Pathology.

This communication, based on a review of the relevant literature on ratios deriving from blood pressure and heart rate measurements, and their conformance/nonconformance to the mathematical golden rule (ie, 1.681), proposes that such ratios, particularly emanating from large numbers of home blood pressure and heart rate measurements obtained by the patients themselves or their caretakers, may constitute new risk markers, useful in the assessment of health and cardiovascular pathologies, prognosis of morbidity and mortality, and implementation to clinical practice and research.

Synergistic Effect of SARS-CoV-2 Infection and COVID-19 Vaccination on the Risk of Venous Thromboembolism.

Background: Previous studies have reported a greater risk of venous thromboembolism among patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 and those who received COVID-19 vaccination. Nevertheless, there is a lack of understanding regarding the interaction effect on the risk of venous thromboembolism occurrence between SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 vaccination.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study including adult patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection between October 2020 and September 2021.

Kidney and Cardiovascular Protection Using Dietary Acid Reduction in Primary Hypertension: A Five-Year, Interventional, Randomized, Control Trial.

Background: High fruit and vegetable diets are associated with reduced chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease but are infrequently used in hypertension treatment. Low acid diets are also associated with reduced chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease, and fruits and vegetables or oral sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO) lowers dietary acid.

Methods: We randomized 153 hypertensive macroalbuminuric patients receiving pharmacologic chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease protection to get fruits and vegetables, oral NaHCO, or Usual Care.

Human Papillomavirus as Nontraditional Cardiovascular Risk Factor: Fact or Fiction? Part 2.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the US and worldwide, with more than 42 million Americans infected with types of HPV that are known to cause disease. While the link between HPV and the development of a variety of cancers has been strongly established, recent literature has demonstrated a potential association between HPV and increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Nevertheless, despite plausible mechanisms for the development of cardiovascular disease with HPV infection, a causative relationship has yet to be firmly established, in part due to potential confounding risk factors between the two.

Angiotensin Receptor Blockers Versus Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors in Acute Myocardial Infarction Without Heart Failure.

Background: Whether angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) can be an alternative to angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) in patients without heart failure (HF) after acute myocardial infarction (MI) remains controversial. The aim of this study was to compare clinical outcomes between initial ARB and ACEI therapy in patients with MI without HF.

Methods: Between 2010 and 2016, a total of 31,013 patients who underwent coronary revascularization for MI with prescription of ARBs or ACEIs at hospital discharge were enrolled from the Korean nationwide medical insurance data.