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Cigarette-smoking, Hypertension, and Cardiovascular Mortality

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In a recent article in the ‘Journal of Hypertension, the authors from the Department of Evidence Based Medicine, Fuwai Hospital, National Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing in China examine the risk of cigarette smoking on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause mortality among hypertensive patients (1).

Progression of coronary atherosclerosis in African-American patients

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African-Americans have higher rates of vascular events compared to whites (1-2). This higher event rates increases the attention to the determinants of atherosclerosis progression and its morphological features in African-Americans. Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS), multislice computed tomography, optical coherence tomography, and magnetic resonance are the imaging tools that employed in clinical practice and research studies.

The Biodiversity Hypothesis and Allergic Disease

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Biodiversity loss and climate change secondary to human activities are increasingly being associated with adverse health effects. A recent position statement of the World Allergy Organization discusses the effects of biodiversity loss on environmental and commensal (indigenous) microbiotas. (1)

Lung Disease and Climate Change

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In a recent article in Chest Drs. Bernstein and Rice from the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard School of Public Health and Boston Children's Hospital discuss that climate change is a health threat no less consequential than cigarette smoking (1).

Factors associated with compliance to lipid-lowering treatment in China

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Because of rapid changes in lifestyle and risk factors, cardiovascular disease has become the leading cause of death in China. A cross-sectional study in a nationally representative sample of 46 239 adults aged ≥20 years,published in 2012, demonstrated that serum total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were high and increasing in the Chinese population. (1) The authors predicted that without effective intervention, atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases may soar in the near future.

Atherosclerosis in Mummies

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Atherosclerosis burden is thought to be related to contemporary lifestyles. A recent paper published in The Lancet described data obtained with whole body CT scans of 137 mummies from four different geographical regions or populations spanning more than 4000 years.

Association between Mortality and Obesity

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In a recent article published in JAMA, the authors describe results from a systematic review of reported hazard ratios (HRs) of all causemortality for overweight  and obesity relative to normal weight in the general population (1).

Long-term survival after aortic valve replacement in octogenarians and high-risk subgroups

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A recent paper in the European Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery describes long-term outcome after surgical aortic valve replacement (1). The investigators from Norway, state that the increasing age of our populations and improvements in the treatment options for aortic valvular disease have resulted in a considerable rise in the number of elderly patients being admitted for conventional aortic valve surgery.

Non-invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR) from anatomic CT angiography.

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Standard, invasive fractional flow reserve (FFR) is a physiologic measure of coronary stenosis severity, allowing identification of hemodynamic significant lesions during cardiac catheterization. The recently published ‘FAME 2’ trial has provided evidence that PCI of such lesions is a safe and effective therapeutic approach to obtain symptom relief and to decrease the rate of urgent revascularizations in patients with stable coronary artery disease (1).
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