Cold Weather Heart Attacks; Preemptive Valve Procedures Flop; Better Bleeding Score

A Chinese study suggested that cold weather may make people more susceptible to myocardial infarction with non-obstructive coronary arteries compared with myocardial infarction from obstructive disease. (European Heart Journal)

Pneumonia and urinary tract infection may act as triggers of acute myocardial infarction, according to a Danish cohort study. (European Journal of Preventive Cardiology)

People with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia had outsized risks of sudden cardiac death, another Danish study showed. (Heart)

For patients with systolic heart failure and moderate aortic stenosis, preemptive transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) did not improve clinical outcomes over standard therapy in a small randomized trial. (Journal of the American College of Cardiology)

Early aortic valve intervention also failed to show clinical benefit in those with asymptomatic severe aortic stenosis and myocardial fibrosis in a separate trial. (JAMA)

Cardiawave said its Valvosoft Non-Invasive Ultrasound Therapy device met expectations for 6-month results in a pivotal trial of severe symptomatic calcific aortic stenosis.

A microaxial flow pump reduced the need for pharmacological circulatory support while maintaining hemodynamic stability in patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction-induced cardiogenic shock, per a DanGer Shock substudy. (JAMA Cardiology)

Medtronic announced FDA approval of its Affera Mapping and Ablation System with the Sphere-9 Catheter for radiofrequency and pulsed field ablation in persistent atrial fibrillation.

The PRECISE-HBR score, which predicts post-percutaneous coronary intervention bleeding, offered a slight improvement in discrimination over existing scores. (Circulation)

Routine upfront use of orbital atherectomy for severely (but not extremely) calcified lesions did not improve stent expansion or patient outcomes compared with routine balloon angioplasty prior to stenting, according to ECLIPSE trial results highlighted by Mount Sinai.

In a head-to-head comparison of two-stent strategies for coronary bifurcation lesions outside the left main, the double-kissing culotte technique came out on top. (Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions)

The sutureless, fully absorbable Vivasure PerQseal Closure Device System performed well for large-bore vessel punctures in the PATCH IDE pivotal study, the device maker announced.

Male gender expressivity, reflecting cultural pressures to convey masculinity, in young men was associated with fewer hypertension and diabetes diagnoses and treatment in adulthood, a cohort study suggested. (JAMA Network Open)

Two years after radiofrequency renal denervation with the Symplicity Spyral system, patients continued to show significant blood pressure reductions in the SPYRAL HTN-ON MED study, Medtronic said.

A first-in-human study supported an investigational cerebroprotection agent — a small-molecule adenosine A1/A3 receptor agonist — for phase II study in stroke and traumatic brain injury. (Stroke)