August 2025 Dispatch for the CV Team

Every month, Section Editor L.A. McKeown curates a roundup of recent news beyond our regular TCTMD coverage, with tidbits from journals and medical meetings around the globe that are of special interest to heart teams and allied cardiovascular professionals.

Many patients with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) experience anxiety and stress around living with the device, from worries about experiencing shocks to concerns about what could happen if their battery dies or their device is recalled. In a review paper in the American Journal of Cardiology, researchers say due to the wide range of psychological implications for people living with ICDs, there is urgent need for improved support that includes mental health resources, education, and counseling.

Risk prediction using the new PREVENT calculator developed by the American Heart Association frequently yields risk age that exceeds chronological age, suggesting hidden burdens of CVD that are not apparent by looking at actual age alone, an analysis published in JAMA Cardiology shows. Investigators say sharing both “risk age and absolute risk together may offer an intuitive approach for communicating CVD risk, can be automated into electronic health records, and could help clinicians and patients in shared decision-making for preventive therapies.”

Diet is a crucial component of CVD prevention—a new scientific statement from three European medical societies outlines dietary patterns and nutrition advice aimed at helping physicians, nurses, and allied healthcare professionals better share that message. The statement summarizes what is known about specific ways of eating such as the DASH and Mediterranean diets, as well as gaps in knowledge where evidence about specific foods or food groups is still lacking. The paper was published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

Women with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) are more likely to never breastfeed or, if they do start, are more likely to stop during the postpartum period than women without HDP, a cross-sectional analysis of US national data show. The paper, published in JAMA Network Open, reviews the public health and health equity implications of these findings and suggests the need for better education and support around the cardiometabolic and cardioprotective benefits of breastfeeding in women who develop HDPs.

Can in-home air purifiers improve blood pressure in patients with hypertension? A small study of patients who live near highways with air pollution exposure below regulatory limits suggests that they can. In adults with systolic BP of 120 mg Hg or higher, in-home HEPA filtration was associated with a mean reduction of 2.8 mm Hg after 1 month (P = 0.03). The study was published in JACC.

In an extended follow-up of the ASPREE trial, which randomized older individuals (mean age 79 years) to low-dose aspirin or placebo, more MACE were seen in the group originally randomized to aspirin at a median of 4.3 years after the trial concluded. The aspirin group also had a higher rate of major hemorrhage over the same period. Additionally, across the 8.3-year period that included the active trial and the extended follow-up, no net CV benefit was seen with aspirin. Reporting their findings in the European Heart Journal, the ASPREE investigators urge consideration of established bleeding risks and the “possible absence of long-term cardiovascular benefits” when making clinical decisions about aspirin for older patients.

Spending too much time in front of electronic devices like phones, tablets, and computers increases cardiometabolic risk in children and adolescents, with the highest risk seen in those who also have shorter sleep times. The Danish study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, highlights “the importance of jointly considering screen time and sleep patterns in the assessment of early‐life risk factors for cardiometabolic and cardiovascular health,” the investigators conclude.

Women who report being stalked or obtaining a restraining order have an increased risk of CVD over the next 20 years compared with women who have not experienced stalking, an analysis from the Nurses’ Health Study II finds. Writing in Circulation, the authors say the findings suggest the need to look further at how interpersonal violence impacts cardiovascular health in women and whether it warrants consideration alongside more traditional risk factors.

In routine coronary procedures, distal transradial access by proficient operators is a safe and feasible default approach in men and women, according to a large, real-world analysis of the Brazilian DISTRACTION registry. While access-site crossovers were more common in women than men, the overall number of these was small. Reporting the results in the Journal of Invasive Cardiology, the researchers note that the registry has been “continuously including patients with any (even weak) distal (and proximal) radial artery palpable pulses, no matter the clinical scenario.”

Infection with COVID-19 may accelerate vascular aging, with a more pronounced effect in women than in men, new data show. By measuring carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV), investigators from the CARTESIAN study found that having any COVID infection, even with mild symptoms, was associated with greater artery stiffness than never having been infected. The paper, published in the European Heart Journal, estimates that the accelerated vascular aging equates to about 5 years and raises questions about whether the aging can be modified or reversed.

News Highlights From TCTMD:

HF Risks Stick Around Even When Ejection Fraction Improves

Healthcare Expenses Increase After GLP-1 Prescription

New ACC/AHA Hypertension Guidelines Still Urge Early Treatment but With Some Twists

Coronary DCB Works Well in Multilayer In-Stent Restenosis: AGENT IDE Subanalysis

Self-service Kiosks May Aid Population Monitoring of High BP