The Handoff: Your Week in Cardiology News – 6/9/17

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

• The FDA has approved an expanded indication for the Sapien 3 transcatheter heart valve. The artificial heart valve can now be used in patients with symptomatic heart disease “due to the failure of a previously place bioprosthetic aortic or mitral valve.”
• Five research organizations — the University of Cincinnati, the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine, the University of California, San Francisco, Yale University, and the University of Chicago — have been awarded a total of $561,798 in funding to research congenital heart defects, according to American Heart Association News.
• Pediatric psoriasis comorbidity screening guidelines, published in JAMA Dermatology, highlight the importance of screening for multiple potentially serious conditions, including hypertension, obesity, and type 2 diabetes. 
• A dietitian steps into the ring with her 2 cents on recent gluten-free research in a Chicago Tribune piece.
• Bicycling might be good for the soul — and, of course, the heart and the environment — but between 1997 and 2013, medical costs associated with nonfatal cycling crashes have increased by approximately $789 million per year.
• Moderate drinking may not be the solution to heart disease protection, according to a new review published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs. The analysis included 45 cohort studies and found that those who abstained from alcohol entirely were typically less healthy than the average moderate drinker; however, this may be reflective of selection biases and/or systematic misclassification of drinkers.
• A “groundbreaking” study in the Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine highlighted the efficacy of a new test aimed at improving diagnosis and treatment of heart disease using patient’s HDL-C.
• A JAMA Internal Medicine investigation found that over the past 15 years, significant reductions have been made in the sodium levels found in prepackaged food. However, “excessive sodium density” is still a problem in households across the US.
• French technology company Dassault Systèmes recently unveiled the Living Heart Project, a collaboration between cardiologists, medical device manufacturers, and regulatory agencies that recreates patient’s heart scans into 3-D models, allowing cardiac surgeons to “test all the possibilities before a heart surgery.” NPR spoke to Living Heart Project director Steve Levine , PhD.
• Seattle has joined Boulder, Colorado; Berkeley, San Francisco, Oakland, and Albany, California; Cook County, Illinois; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and the Navajo Nation in passing a soda tax, according to American Heart Association News. The vote imposes a 1.75 cent per ounce tax on distributors, a move opposed widely by the American Beverage Association.