Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) cause nearly one-third of all deaths worldwide. Coronary heart disease (CHD) accounts for the greatest proportion of CVDs, and risk factors such as hypertension, ...cigarette smoking, diabetes mellitus or elevated glucose level, elevated cholesterol levels, and obesity or being overweight are the top six causes of death globally. Ecological and population-based longitudinal studies, conducted globally or within individual countries, have established the role of traditional and novel risk factors and measures of subclinical disease in the prediction of CHD. Risk assessment with short-term or long-term risk prediction algorithms can help to identify individuals who would benefit most from risk-factor interventions. Evaluation of novel risk factors and screening for subclinical atherosclerosis can also help to identify individuals at highest cardiovascular risk. Prevention of CHD focuses on identifying and managing risk factors at both the population and individual levels through primordial, primary, and secondary prevention. Epidemiological studies have provided the hypotheses for subsequent clinical trials that have documented the efficacy of risk-factor interventions, which are the basis of preventive cardiology. Future research efforts will determine the screening and intervention strategies that have the greatest effect on CHD prevention.
Purpose of Review
Diabetes mellitus (DM) has become a rising epidemic in the last century, more pressing in the last few decades with the exponential rise of obesity, and has become one of the ...leading causes of death worldwide.
Recent Findings
Genetic variants have also been a new field of epidemiology research to determine the underlying genetic component of those risk factors and the association of DM with CVD.
Summary
In light of its significant prevalence, patients remain unaware of their disease progression that arises from genetic and metabolic risk factors. As compared to non-diabetics, those with type 2 DM carry a higher mortality risk from cardiovascular disease (CVD) across different ethnicity groups and sex. The most common cardiovascular manifestations in those with DM include heart failure, peripheral arterial disease, and coronary heart disease. Although DM does predispose patients to CVD, it in fact is not a risk equivalent, but carries significant heterogeneity in risk for CVD.
Objectives In a computed tomographic (CT) angiography study, we identified the characteristics of atherosclerotic lesions that were associated with subsequent development of acute coronary syndrome ...(ACS). Background The CT characteristics of culprit lesions in ACS include positive vessel remodeling (PR) and low-attenuation plaques (LAP). These 2 features have been observed in the lesions that have already resulted in ACS, but their prospective relation to ACS has not been previously described. Methods In 1,059 patients who underwent CT angiography, atherosclerotic lesions were analyzed for the presence of 2 features: PR and LAP. The remodeling index, and plaque and LAP areas and volumes were calculated. The plaque characteristics of lesions resulting in ACS during the follow-up of 27 ± 10 months were evaluated. Results Of the 45 patients showing plaques with both PR and LAP (2-feature positive plaques), ACS developed in 10 (22.2%), compared with 1 (3.7%) of the 27 patients with plaques displaying either feature (1-feature positive plaques). In only 4 (0.5%) of the 820 patients with neither PR nor LAP (2-feature negative plaques) did ACS develop. None of the 167 patients with normal angiograms had acute coronary events (p < 0.001). ACS was independently predicted by PR and/or LAP (hazard ratio: 22.8, 95% confidence interval: 6.9 to 75.2, p < 0.001). Among 2- or 1-feature positive segments, those resulting in ACS demonstrated significantly larger remodeling index (126.7 ± 3.9% vs. 113.4 ± 1.6%, p = 0.003), plaque volume (134.9 ± 14.1 mm3 vs. 57.8 ± 5.7 mm3 , p < 0.001), LAP volume (20.4 ± 3.4 mm3 vs. 1.1 ± 1.4 mm3 , p < 0.001), and percent LAP/total plaque area (21.4 ± 3.7 mm2 vs. 7.7 ± 1.5 mm2 , p = 0.001) compared with segments not resulting in ACS. Conclusions The patients demonstrating positively remodeled coronary segments with low-attenuation plaques on CT angiography were at a higher risk of ACS developing over time when compared with patients having lesions without these characteristics.
Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words? Wong, Nathan D.
JACC. Cardiovascular imaging,
August 2023, 2023-Aug, 2023-08-00, 20230801, Letnik:
16, Številka:
8
Journal Article
Purpose of Review
Coronary artery calcium (CAC) is an important measure of subclinical atherosclerosis and strongly predicts atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) outcomes. The purpose of ...this review is to discuss the key studies that have helped to establish its role as an important screening tool and its place in preventive cardiology.
Recent Findings
Epidemiologic studies document a strong relation of age, race/ethnicity, and risk factors with the prevalence and extent of CAC. Large-scale registry and prospective investigations show CAC to be the strongest subclinical disease predictor of ASCVD outcomes, with higher CAC scores associated with successively higher risks and those with a CAC score of 0 having a long-term “warranty” against having events. Moreover, CAC is associated with greater initiation of preventive health behaviors and therapy. Current US guidelines utilize CAC to inform the treatment decision for statin therapy. Further study is underway to document whether CAC screening will ultimately improve clinical outcomes.
Summary
CAC is well established as the most important subclinical cardiovascular disease measure for prediction of future ASCVD outcomes and can be used for informing the treatment decision for preventive therapies.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains leading cause of death among adults with type 2 diabetes (T2DM). There is a lack of recent national data on attainment of single and multiple CVD risk factor ...targets among adults with T2DM with and without CVD. We identified 1179 T2DM adults (projected to 19.7 million in the US population) aged ≥18 years from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2013-2016 and examined those at target for hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c <7.0%, <8.0% if CVD), blood pressure (BP <130/80 mm Hg), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C <100 mg/dL non-CVD and LDL-C <70 mg/dL CVD), nonsmoking status, and body mass index (BMI <30 kg/m2and BMI <25 kg/m2) individually and as a composite in those with versus without prior CVD. Overall, around half of T2DM adults were at target control of HbA1c (55.8%), BP (51.3%), LDL-C (49.3%), with more being nonsmokers (84.3%). The proportion at target for these factors was slightly higher among those with CVD except for LDL-C. BMI was least frequently at target control (9.1% for BMI <25 kg/m2) compared to other risk factors. Moreover, only 17.3% of T2DM patients reached composite target control of HbA1c, BP and LDL-C, with 16.0% reaching target control when nonsmoking status was included and <10% if we included BMI targets. The proportion of patients at composite control was lower in those with versus without with prior CVD. Less than one-fifth adults with T2DM are at composite CVD risk factor control for HbA1c, BP, LDL-C, and nonsmoking status.
Globally, nearly 500 million adults currently have diabetes, which is expected to increase to approximately 700 million by 2040. Cardiovascular diseases (CVD), including coronary heart disease, ...stroke, heart failure, and peripheral arterial disease, are the principal causes of death in persons with diabetes. Key to the prevention of CVD is optimization of associated risk factors. However, few persons with diabetes are at recommended targets for key CVD risk factors including low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), blood pressure, glycated hemoglobin, nonsmoking status, and body mass index. While lifestyle management forms the basis for the prevention and control of these risk factors, newer and existing pharmacologic approaches are available to optimize the potential for CVD risk reduction, particularly for the management of lipids, blood pressure, and blood glucose. For higher-risk patients, antiplatelet therapy is recommended. Medication for blood pressure, statins, and most recently, icosapent ethyl, have evidence for reducing CVD events in persons with diabetes. Newer medications for diabetes, including sodium glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, also reduce CVD and SGLT2 inhibitors in particular also reduce progression of kidney disease and reduce heart failure hospitalizations (HFHs). Most importantly, a multidisciplinary team is required to address the polypharmaceutical options to best reduce CVD risks persons with diabetes.
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