TCTMD’s Top 10 Most Popular Stories for December 2022

The top 10 list for December 2022 has a little bit of everything—exactly what you’d want for the last month of the year. Yes, COVID-19 still exerts an influence (thank you, Google), but the breadth of interest among our cardiology readership must have factored in also. Witness the stories on nontraditional therapies for heart failure, new and old cardiovascular devices, and the newly announced interventional fellowship match. Several long reads—on bullying, on training heart failure specialists, and on tricuspid innovation—also made the list.

1. Both COVID-19 and Vaccination Raise the Risk of POTS

The postural tachycardia, however, was much more frequent after the infection than after receipt of one of the vaccines.

2. Query Use of Nontraditional Therapies for HF at Every Visit: AHA Statement

Some complementary and alternative therapies have potential benefits, but others may be harmful, the authors caution.

3. FEATURE Bullying in Cardiology: Has More Diversity Led to Backlash?

Power dynamics are shifting—professional societies can help cardiologists navigate what can sometimes be choppy water.

4. Interventional Cardiology Fellowship to Move to a Match for 2025

Just over three-quarters of 177 US programs agreed to the change, which will shift the application process forward 6 months.

5. Comparing TAVI Devices: Much Overlap, Some Nuances to Guide Care

In the OBSERVANT II registry, differences in pacemaker use, PVL, and transprosthetic gradients could help match devices to patients.

6. Aortic Aneurysm Killed Soccer Journalist Grant Wahl, Wife Says

Amid COVID conspiracies, Wahl’s death is a reminder that CVD is still the world’s top killer, worthy of screening and prevention.

7. FEATURE Heart Failure Care Has a Pipeline Problem: What’s the Fix?

Advanced HF and transplant cardiology fellowships are going unfilled, while general cardiology skirts basic HF care, experts say.

8. Reduction in BP Drives Treatment Preference for Hypertensive Patients

If renal denervation can beat pills for BP-lowering, even by a little bit, patients would go the interventional route, survey data hint.

9. FFR Pullback Measure Linked to Likelihood of Angina Relief After PCI

A low pullback pressure gradient indicates diffuse coronary disease that probably won’t respond well to stenting.

10. FEATURE Will Tricuspid Innovation Outpace Mitral? Some Hopes, Some Second-Guessing

Pivotal results for tricuspid repair and replacement trials are pending, but experts agree, today’s questions are just the start.