Cardiology
Expert discussions on heart failure, arrhythmias, interventional procedures, and cardiovascular risk management.
Recent Discussions
What has been your approach to using contrast enhancement agent in the echo lab in pregnant patients if there is concern for LV thrombus or poor imaging windows for LVEF/valvular disease assessment?
This is a quote from a recent ACC article: "The use of agitated saline for evaluation of intracardiac shunting is not recommended in the setting of pregnancy. There are no empirical safety data on the use of ultrasound-enhancing agents (perflutren, sulfur hexafluoride) in pregnancy, although data fr...
Is there evidence to support the use of automated blood pressure checks during exercise stress testing, or does manual BP remain superior in terms of accuracy and consistency?
While there are certainly some advantages with automated blood pressure monitors, there are some limitations that require a manual backup or check. Exercise peak BPs should be verified with manual cuffs as well as measurements during arrhythmias, which can affect the accuracy of automated devices. A...
How do you counsel patients who develop DVT or atrial fibrillation requiring anticoagulation when being treated with lecanemab or donanemab?
I do not think that anticoagulation is contraindicated in patients with these Alzheimer's disease antibodies, but I would want to check APOE status. I would not initiate the AD treatment if the patient is E4E4, and even one E4 would make me hesitant to have a patient on anticoagulation and an Alzhei...
How would you approach the management of a patient who develops an accelerated junctional rhythm who exhibits no symptoms and has no prior history of cardiac issues, aside from consulting a cardiologist?
There would be many clinical factors to consider before making a decision to treat to suppress such an arrhythmia including the age of the patient, presence of associated structural heart disease, symptoms associated with the arrhythmia, its rate and putative mechanism, and its pattern and persisten...
What is your preferred duration for triple therapy post-PCI in patients on systemic anticoagulation?
Most practitioners extrapolate data from the AUGUSTUS and PIONEER-AF trials to answer this question.These trial used apixaban and rivaroxaban, respectively, along with use of DAPT with clopidogrel 75mg qd and ASA 81mg qd. From these 2 trial, Augustus demonstrated lower bleeding risk compared to trip...
For isolated and very high lipoprotein (a) levels (LDL of > 140, has an Lp(a) > 100) in a patient with no cardiac symptoms or risk factors, would you start lipid lowering treatment, such as with a PCSK9i if they develop statin intolerance?
There are a number of trials going on for reduction of Lp(a) with both IM and PO meds. We know that lifestyle modification does not help for reduction of this very atherogenic protein. If calc scores are high, I would look into entering one of the trials. If the score is low (unlikely), I would wait...
What are some immunosuppression regimens to consider in a patient with refractory cardiac sarcoidosis?
Unfortunately, there is no high quality data at this point to directly answer this question but here are some options. For patients who have only been treated with oral steroids, I would first consider the addition of weekly methotrexate at a dose of between 10 - 20 mg WEEKLY with supplemental folic...
When would you consider referring a patient with suspected cardiac sarcoidosis based on PET and MRI for endomyocardial biopsy given degree of patchy involvement, as opposed to initiating empiric immunosuppressive therapies?
I would avoid initiating empiric immunosuppressive therapies without a firm diagnosis of sarcoidosis. I will mention however that the latest Japanese Circulation Society criteria for the diagnosis of sarcoidosis do include criterion for the non-invasive diagnosis of likely cardiac sarcoidosis based ...
What is your approach to a newly diagnosed LBBB in individuals >70 years old who are free of any signs or symptoms of heart disease and without other significant ASCVD risk factors besides age?
The presence of BBB; whether IVCD or RBBB or LBBB, signifies infranodal conduction delay from a myopathy. That myopathy may be hypertensive (LVH) or ischemic (LAD disease) or something less common (inflammatory etc). The ideal test would evaluate anterior septal LV thickness and vascular flow; it’s ...
What are your top 5 reasons to choose between a TAVI valve Edwards SAPIEN 3 (Edwards Lifesciences) vs an Evolut FX (Medtronic) and what favors one over the other?
Considering the SMART trial, for patients with a small annulus I favor Medtronic. However, evaluating other studies comparing hemodynamics and EOA, I favor Medtronic for most patients (FAVORS MEDTRONIC). If patients have lower coronaries, especially with the history of coronary artery disease, prev...