The use of donation after circulatory death (DCD) donors for heart transplantation (HT) is increasing in the United States. Whether sex differences exist in DCD HT utilization and outcomes is unknown.

Fetal cardiovascular magnetic resonance is an emerging tool for prenatal congenital heart disease assessment, but long acquisition times and fetal movements limit its clinical use. This study evaluates the clinical utility of deep learning super-resolution reconstructions for rapidly acquired, low-resolution fetal cardiovascular magnetic resonance.

Coronary artery spasm (CAS) is a common cause of angina with nonobstructive coronary arteries (ANOCA). While acetylcholine provocation testing is the diagnostic gold standard, protocol variations have led to discrepancies in diagnostic accuracy. This study aimed to compare the diagnostic validity of conventional versus high-dose acetylcholine regimens in patients with ANOCA.

Patients with postpercutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) angina are challenging to manage. Comprehensive coronary function testing (CFT) can identify occult coronary abnormalities in patients with angina and nonobstructive coronary arteries. Its utility in patients with post-PCI and persistent angina who have no obstructive coronary artery disease is unexplored.

Differences in cardiac sarcoidosis between racial groups remain understudied. Therefore, this study aims to explore race differences in patients with cardiac sarcoidosis.

Fabry disease (FD) is an X-linked lysosomal storage disorder caused by α-Gal A (α-galactosidase A) deficiency, resulting in multiorgan accumulation of sphingolipid, namely globotriaosylceramide. This triggers ventricular myocardial hypertrophy, fibrosis, and inflammation, driving arrhythmia and sudden death. Atrial fibrillation is common, yet the cellular mechanisms accounting for this are unknown.

Wrist-worn wearables can detect irregular heart rhythms using photoplethysmography, but ECGs are required to confirm atrial fibrillation (AF). We sought to determine the frequency of a recurrent irregular heart rhythm detection (IHRD; ≥30 minutes of an irregular rhythm), estimate the potential diagnostic yield of different electrocardiographic monitoring strategies for confirming AF, and identify predictors of recurrent IHRDs.

Allograft arteriosclerosis, a significant cause of graft failure, is linked to the formation of tertiary lymphoid organs. T follicular helper (Tfh) cells are a vital subset of helper T cells that control the formation of the germinal center in tertiary lymphoid organs. Thus, understanding the origins and regulatory mechanisms of Tfh cells in allograft arteriosclerosis is essential for developing targeted therapies.

Clinical guidelines recommend different revascularization strategies for nonculprit lesions in patients with ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) versus non-STEMI (NSTEMI). Whether the prevalence of untreated high-risk vulnerable plaques differs in STEMI and NSTEMI and affects their outcomes is unknown.

Prediction models determining expected outcomes are infrequently updated (ie, static), which may reduce accuracy and misclassify hospital performance over time. Dynamic models incorporate changes over time and may improve accuracy and fairness in hospital comparisons. This study evaluated whether dynamic updating, compared with a static model, altered hospital rankings and outlier detection among surgical aortic valve replacement patients.

Combining antiplatelet therapy (APT) with conventional anticoagulants increases the risk of bleeding. In the AZALEA-TIMI 71 trial (Safety and Tolerability of Abelacimab [MAA868] vs Rivaroxaban in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation), the novel factor XI inhibitor abelacimab significantly reduced the risk of bleeding compared with rivaroxaban in patients with atrial fibrillation. Whether the safety of combination antithrombotic therapy differs in the context of factor XI inhibition has not been well characterized.

Guided by long-term safety data for AAV5 (adeno-associated virus 5) in humans, our translational study investigated whether AAV5 effectively delivers genes to healthy and achieves therapeutic efficacy in dysfunctional human-sized hearts, using a clinically applicable mode of administration and vector dosages.

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a systemic process with contributions from peripheral factors, including skeletal muscle (SM). Age-associated SM loss and impaired energy metabolism occur without heart failure, but the relative importance of changes in SM quantity versus metabolic quality in patients with HFpEF for exercise intolerance (EI) or outcomes has not been studied. We hypothesized that EI and subsequent clinical outcomes across the adult lifespan in patients with HFpEF are related to impaired SM energy metabolism rather than age-associated SM loss.

Restricting certain patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) from exercise likely has negative cardiovascular effects and has not been shown to reduce the risk of sudden cardiac death. Promoting exercise in children with HCM is complex and requires knowledge of the environmental factors that impact exercise capacity in children with HCM.

Poor diet quality is a leading risk factor for cardiometabolic disease (ie, diabetes and diseases associated with metabolism and inflammation), which is present in about half of American adults. Support has grown for incorporating the provision of healthy food as a complement to or a component of clinical care. Such "Food Is Medicine" programs provide free or subsidized healthy food directly to patients in close coordination with the health care system. In this review, we systematically examined published randomized controlled trials examining Food Is Medicine programs in the United States, categorizing them into different stages of development using the National Institutes of Health Model for Behavioral Intervention Development. This review identified a total of 14 randomized controlled trials of Food Is Medicine interventions in the United States with noncommunicable disease outcomes, more than one-third of which were early-stage smaller-scale trials (stage 1 randomized controlled trials). Broad variations in populations enrolled; intervention design, duration, and intensity; and outcomes precluded many direct comparisons between studies. Randomized controlled trial data were generally consistent with findings in the observational literature, indicating that common Food Is Medicine approaches often positively influence diet quality and food security, which are theorized to be key mediators for clinical outcomes. However, the impact on clinical outcomes was inconsistent and often failed to reach statistical significance. These observations highlight the need for larger, higher-quality Food Is Medicine studies focusing on the measurement of clinical outcomes within well-designed programs and the need for additional randomized controlled trials that more systematically map out the relationship between participation in different types of Food Is Medicine programs and health outcomes.

Genome-wide association studies have clustered candidate genes associated with atrial fibrillation (AF) into biological pathways reflecting different pathophysiological mechanisms. We investigated whether these pathways associate with distinct intermediate phenotypes and confer differing risks of cardioembolic stroke.

Clinical factors discriminate incident atrial fibrillation (AF) risk with moderate accuracy, with only modest improvement after incorporation of polygenic risk scores. Whether emerging large-scale proteomic profiling can augment AF risk estimation is unknown.

The BE ACTIVE trial (Behavioral Economic Approaches to Increase Physical Activity Among Patients with Elevated Risk for Cardiovascular Disease) documented the effectiveness, compared with an attention control arm that received daily text messages, of gamification, financial incentives, or gamification+financial incentives to increase steps/day. Increases in daily step count are associated with longer life expectancy, but understanding the cost-effectiveness of these interventions is essential for payers and other stakeholders seeking to implement findings.

Penetrance and risk of ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) in arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC) are increasingly recognized as being genotype specific. Therefore, genotype-informed family screening protocols may lead to safer and more personalized recommendations than the current one-size-fits-all screening recommendations. We aimed to develop a safe, evidence-based plakophilin-2 (PKP2)-specific longitudinal screening algorithm.

One-time atrial fibrillation (AF) screening trials in older adults have produced mixed results. In a secondary analysis of the VITAL-AF trial, we aimed to identify a subset of people in whom such screening is effective, using effect-based and risk-based approaches.