May 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 heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) have abnormal scores on at least one malnutrition risk assessment, which puts them at greater risk for worse cardiovascular and noncardiovascular outcomes, post-hoc analyses of the PARAGON-HF trial suggest. “These data emphasize the bidirectional relationship between abnormal malnutrition scores and hospitalization risk in patients with HFpEF,” the researchers write in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

The shingles vaccine can cut the risk of cardiovascular events by as much as 23%, with the protective effects lasting for up to 8 years, according to a study of more than 1 million South Korean adults. In the paper, published in the European Heart Journal, the researchers say a recommendation for the general population to get vaccination against the herpes zoster infection “may help address health disparities and mortality linked to cardiovascular complications.”

Social media’s role in shaping the cardiovascular community is explored in a commentary published in Nature. Its authors stress the importance of digital professionalism and how early adoption of critical social media skills can “help to cultivate a generation of cardiologists who are not only clinically and academically strong, but also digitally fluent and equipped to lead in a connected world.”

In military veterans with a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) within the prior 10 years, the risk of any stroke was 1.69 times higher than in veterans lacking a history of TBI, according to a study published in Stroke. The researchers say the link between head injury and development of stroke isn’t fully understood, but they urge clinicians to pay “scrupulous attention to vascular risk factor modification and to other primary stroke prevention strategies” in affected patients.

Improving communication and decision-making while respecting patient preferences and preserving dignity in dying are among the goals of a scientific statement on palliative and end-of-life care from the American Heart Association. The statement, published in Circulation, addressed many aspects of cardiac ICU care, team-based care, symptom management, aligning treatment with goals, and addressing social and spiritual needs of the dying patient.

As previously reported by TCTMD and now published in JAMA, the randomized BedMed study suggests that the timing of antihypertensive medication does not affect risks or benefits. BedMed investigators say these findings leave antihypertensive administration open to patient preference, noting that no differences were seen in all-cause deaths or major cardiovascular events. There also were no differences in rates of falls or fractures, new glaucoma diagnoses, or cognitive decline.

Regardless of their sex and race/ethnicity, people with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD)  who have high Lp(a) levels—with no clear cutoff—are more vulnerable to experiencing a recurrent event, data on over 270,000 individuals from the US Family Heart Database show. “These data point at an unmet medical need for lipoprotein(a)-lowering treatment in the entire US racially and ethnically diverse ASCVD population,” the authors write in the European Heart Journal, adding that they also highlight the need to consider the magnitude of Lp(a) levels in all people with ASCVD.

Growing up in a household with food insecurity as a child may increase the risk of suboptimal cardiovascular health in your 20s, a cohort study published in JAMA Cardiology suggests. People with this history had higher body mass index and lower physical activity levels than those of the same age who had not faced food insecurity. Poorer CV health as a young adult also was more frequent in those with early food insecurity who did not participate in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) compared with those who did.

Better understanding of genetic primary electrical heart diseases—also known as cardiac channelopathies—is being driven by advancements in genomics, proteomics, and transcriptomics. A review article in the Journal of the American Heart Association discusses proposed diagnostic scores and explores research gaps that need to be bridged to improve detection and prevention of sudden cardiac death related to these conditions.

In patients with MI, treatment with supersaturated oxygen therapy reduces infarct size and microvascular obstruction compared with standard therapy, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis of two contemporary and two older studies recently presented at the Society of Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions 2025 Scientific Sessions. The researchers say further large-scale studies are warranted to confirm the findings and evaluate long-term outcomes of the therapy.

News Highlights From TCTMD:

SELECT: Semaglutide’s Impact on CVD Events Emerges Quickly

CV Death Rates in Autoimmune Disorders Waning, but Still Higher in Women

Benefits of TAVI Before Symptom Onset Not Hindered by Age: EARLY TAVR

HDL Cholesterol Levels May Sway Statin Decisions in Primary Prevention

Studies Spotlight Safety Concerns With Pulsed-Field Ablation for AF