The Handoff: Your Week in Cardiology News – 1/20/17

The Handoff is a weekly roundup of cardiology news covering various developments in subspecialties, as well as pharmaceutical industry, association, and society news.

• Representative Tom Price, President-elect Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, has divided many doctors, particularly in light of his opposition to the Affordable Care Act.
• Patients who have had open heart surgery at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California, may be at risk for bacterial infection, according to a Los Angeles Times report. The infections are linked to a heater-cooler device used during surgery.
• According to a study published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, black and Hispanic patients had worse hypertension control compared with white patients, particularly among younger and uninsured patients.
• “Food-as-medicine” may be gaining momentum as a more formal treatment option, according to an article published on NPR. Doctors in California can be found in grocery store aisles helping people learn more about nutrition.
• A new metabolomic biomarker panel may help improve heart failure detection, according to a study published in Clinical Chemistry. The researchers narrowed down the features to the lipid classes of sphingomyelins, triglycerides, and phosphatidylcholines. This panel, in combination with NT-proBNP, allowed researchers to distinguish patients with heart failure from healthy individuals.
• The American College of Cardiology’s National Cardiovascular Data Registry data provide insight into heart disease management and treatment in the United States. A recent report published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology highlighted outcomes in PCI, implantable defibrillators, and interventions for congenital heart disease and acute MIs.
• The preliminary program for the 2017 International Stroke Conference is now available online. The conference will take place in Houston, Texas from February 22-24, 2017.
• Machine-learning software was able to predict heart failure by analyzing MRI scans and blood tests in a study evaluating patients with pulmonary hypertension.