TCTMD’s Top 10 Most Popular Stories for July 2024

Our top 10 list this month offers up exactly the sort of ice-cream-parlor variety you might hope to encounter midsummer: a tantalizing selection of stories spanning every flavor of cardiology. Topping the list was our coverage of a study questioning who in the US would still be eligible for a statin as risk-calculation tools shift. In second place is not, in fact, a news story, but a Conversations in Cardiology, wherein Morton Kern, MD, moderates a discussion with colleagues dealing with the physical effects of radiation protection. For the rest of the list, read on.

1. Think You Need a Statin? AHA’s Risk Calculator May Disagree

If eligibility were based on the PREVENT calculator, 4 million US adults would no longer need their PCE-mandated statin.

2. Conversations in Cardiology The Weight of a Lifetime of Lead: Cardiologists Seek to Ease the Burden

This occupational hazard can lead to painful back and neck injuries that require surgery. Some see new ways forward.

3. Real-world Patients Might Lose More Weight With Tirzepatide vs Semaglutide

With CV outcomes data still pending for tirzepatide, this study may not impact current drug choices if other factors are at play.

4. Everyone’s Glum About RECOVER IV: Where Shock Care Heads Next Is Unclear

With mixed feelings, experts in the field mourn what’s lost but remain optimistic that new, perhaps better, trials lie ahead.

5. Women Appear to Quit Interventional Cardiology More Often Than Men Do

An analysis of procedural data in Medicare beneficiaries points to a sex gap, but future studies are needed to pinpoint why.

6. Make Way, at Last, for the Third MitraClip RCT in Functional MR: RESHAPE-HF 2

This long-awaited RCT, seen by some as a COAPT/MITRA-FR tiebreaker, will be unveiled at ESC 2024—with key design tweaks.

7. Industry Payments Made to Cardiology Fellows Prompt Bias Concerns

Those who received payments during their last year of training were more than twice as likely to receive them after.

8. FDA to Add New Diversity Requirements for Certain Clinical Studies

Requiring sponsors to submit diversity action plans is a good first step to greater representation in trials, experts say.

9. Apixaban May Have Advantages in Patients With Liver Cirrhosis and AF

Atrial fibrillation (AF) patients with cirrhosis are at increased risk of bleeding and thrombosis, making anticoagulation challenging and data scarce.

10. Prior Transradial Cath Shouldn’t Mean Radial Graft a No-go for Surgery

Cardiac cath with radial access usually makes the artery out-of-bounds for surgery—that should change, say researchers.