News and views

The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a new guideline on the diagnosis and management of chronic heart failure in adults (NG108). It updates and replaces the last heart failure guidance published in April 2010....

Blood clots are the second most common cause of preventable mortality in cancer patients. Approximately 4% to 20% of cancer patients experience venous thrombosis, an incidence four to five times higher than in the general population....

A new study, from the Global Capnography Project (GCAP) and published in the journal Anaesthesia (doi: 10.1111/anae.14426), has identified a need for middle and low-income countries to have access to capnography, a simple and life-saving method of monitoring a patient’s breathing, in operating theatres and in intensive care units....

Less than 5% of interventional cardiologists attempt left main bifurcation percutaneous coronary intervention stenting procedures because it is so complicated, according to estimates from Advanced Bifurcation Systems (ABS), a US medical device company with a patented bifurcation stenting platform....

Clinicians who use handheld devices to ‘listen’ to the blood flow in patients’ lower limbs now have an online teaching aid that will improve their diagnostic skills in this area....

Topics covered in brief in this issue include: self-monitoring of type 2 diabetes cuts costs; rivaroxaban licensed in patients with CAD or PAD; new cardiovascular ultrasound platform; CV meta-analysis shows SGLT2 inhibitor benefits; dairy fat linked to lower rates of CVD and mortality....

Very high levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), the lipid that has been considered ‘good’ cholesterol, may be associated with an increased risk of heart attack and death, according to research presented at the ESC Congress....

Rivaroxaban, the direct oral, factor Xa inhibitor, does not reduce the risk of a composite end point of survival, myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke after an episode of worsening heart failure in patients with heart failure, sinus rhythm, and coronary artery disease....

The use of the oral anticoagulant rivaroxaban in medically ill patients for 45 days following hospital discharge showed there was no significant difference between rivaroxaban and placebo for the primary efficacy end point: a composite of symptomatic venous thromboembolism (VTE) and VTE-related death in the MARINER (Rivaroxaban for Thromboprophylaxis after Hospitalization for Medical Illness) study....

“Usually”, appears to be the answer according to 10-year results from the Registry Of Pregnancy And Cardiac disease (ROPAC) a worldwide, prospective registry which was set up in 2007 by co-chairs Professor Roos-Hesselink (Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands) and Professor Roger Hall (University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK)....