News and views

HEART UK held its 37th Annual Medical and Scientific Conference between 10th–12th July. This year, the cholesterol charity took on an international theme, looking at the global cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention picture. There was also a particular focus on women and CVD disease, alongside a review of how familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) care has advanced in recent decades....

The British Cardiovascular Society (BCS) annual conference returned to the Manchester Central Convention Complex on the 3–5 June 2024. This year’s focus was our most important stakeholder, the patient – highlighting how research, pharmaceutical and technological advancements are improving patient outcomes, and the importance of value-based care....

Dear Sirs, In the recent article ‘Drug therapies for stroke prevention’, under the heading entitled ‘Control of blood pressure’, the authors specified that “A systolic blood pressure (SBP) target of 120–129 mmHg should be routinely aimed for in those <65 years old….”.1 This ‘goal’ SBP does not take recognition of the fact that the goal SBP that optimally mitigates the risk of incident atrial fibrillation (AF) and, hence, cardioembolic stroke, is a SBP <120 mmHg.2...

Dear Sirs, Sodium-glucose cotransporter type 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors (dapagliflozin, empagliflozin, canagliflozin) are increasingly being prescribed in the primary-care setting for cardiovascular indications. SGLT2 inhibitors have been found to reduce the risk of all-cause mortality, heart failure (HF) hospitalisations and cardiovascular death in a wide range of HF patients.1...

Dear Sirs, Given the fact that we are now practising medicine in an era where the standard of care is the optimisation of evidence-based treatments – both for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) – it is imperative that strategies should also be optimised both for identification of congestive heart failure (CHF) and for establishing a distinction between HFrEF and HFpEF. The requirement to distinguish between HFrEF and HFpEF is partly met by the use of transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) for measuring left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), but this only serves to allocate the patient either to a category of an LVEF <50% or ≥50%. What TTE fails to do is to validate or refute the diagnosis of CHF in patients in either of these LVEF categories....

This year marks over 30 years of publishing the British Journal of Cardiology (BJC). Our first issue was in November 1993, as a new peer-reviewed cardiovascular publication linking primary and secondary care....

The Cardiorenal Forum’s recent 18th Annual Scientific meeting looked at the latest updates in the failing heart and kidney. Held in London on 6th October 2023, this popular meeting mixed presentations from experts in cardiology, diabetes and renal medicine with the opportunity for delegates to network, share and discuss their knowledge and expertise. Dr Mohammad Wasef and Dr Sarah Birkhoelzer report its highlights....

Multidisciplinary experts in heart failure care from across the UK and wider afield gathered for the recent 26th British Society of Heart Failure (BSH) annual meeting. This year’s programme sought to highlight how collaboration, coordination and cooperation would ultimately be vital for the delivery and success of the flagship 25in25 initiative. The meeting, held at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre, London, on 30th November and 1st December 2023, offered thought-provoking plenary sessions, focused masterclasses, a new ‘technology in action’ demonstration area, plus a number of high-quality poster presentations. Dr Aaron Henry reports highlights from the meeting....

Dear Sirs, We read with interest the article by Yamamoto et al.,1 regarding the distinct electrocardiographic (ECG) manifestations in a large primary spontaneous right-sided pneumothorax. We concur that physicians’ awareness of possible right-sided pneumothorax associated ECG manifestations remains insufficient and not well reported.1...

Dear Sirs, In response to the article by Acharya and Mariscalco on the diagnosis and acute management of type A aortic dissection,1 I would like to expand on the role of pulmonary embolism (PE). The differential diagnosis of type A aortic dissection includes, not only PE, as stated by the authors in table 2 of the article,1 but, also, the co-existence of PE and dissecting aneurysm of the aorta (DAA).2–14...