This year’s meeting of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) was held in Munich, Germany, from 25th–29th August 2018.
- Several new guidelines from the ESC were announced at the meeting:
- ESC guidelines on the management of cardiovascular diseases during pregnancy, first published in 2011, have been updated with a second edition in 2018
- 2018 ESC/EACTS (European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery) guidelines on myocardial revascularisation
- 2018 ESC guidelines for the diagnosis and management of syncope
- 2018 ESC/ESH (European Society of Hypertension) joint guidelines for the management of arterial hypertension.
- The GLOBAL LEADERS study has shown that superiority at one year with ticagrelor monotherapy after coronary stenting compared with standard treatment was no longer seen at two years. The reduced all-cause death or new Q-wave myocardial infarction seen at one year with ticagrelor persisted at two years but was no longer statistically significant compared to standard treatment. Moderate/severe bleeding was also similar in each group at two years.
- The MITRA.fr study has shown for the first time the safety and efficacy of the Mitraclip device in patients with severe secondary mitral regurgitation and chronic heart failure. There was no difference in all-cause death and unplanned hospitalisations, however, between the group receiving the Mitraclip and those receiving optimal medical therapy.
- Once-daily aspirin did not reduce the rate of primary cardiovascular events in patients with no known cardiovascular disease and moderate cardiovascular risk in the ARRIVE study, carried out on 12,546 participants with an estimated 10-year cardiovascular risk of 20–30%.
- The agent tafamidis has been shown to improve survival and quality of life in patients with transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy in the ATTR-ACT study.
