Investigators at the Brigham’s Cardiac Arrhythmia Service are participating in several clinical trials seeking to develop new techniques to improve the current standard of care for atrial fibrillation—catheter ablation using cold or heat. Service Chief William Henry Sauer, MD, discusses progress and future plans.

To reduce risk of amputation or death, patients with chronic limb threatening ischemia are treated with either surgical bypass or endovascular therapy. A new Mass General Brigham study compared patient outcomes between the two treatments and suggested that bypass may be the optimal treatment approach.

A new study presented by Brigham and Women’s Alexander Peikert, MD, at the AHA 2022 Scientific Sessions suggests that individuals with high-risk heart disease who experience mild to moderate reactions to the flu vaccine are less likely to be hospitalized or die from cardiopulmonary events.

Marc S. Sabatine, MD, MPH, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and colleagues have completed a phase 2b trial of MEDI6012 in patients with STEMI. They report that MEDI6012 was not associated with significant reductions in infarct size or regression of noncalcified coronary plaque.

The Brigham is giving advanced heart failure patients a new option that parallels the life prolongation of heart transplantation: implantation of a fully magnetically levitated left ventricular assist device. Mandeep R. Mehra, MD, and Akinobu Itoh, MD, PhD, are at the forefront of these efforts.

Scott D. Solomon, MD, director of the Clinical Trials Outcomes Center at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and colleagues have concluded that SGLT2 inhibitors should be considered adjunctive therapy for all patients with heart failure, regardless of ejection fraction or care setting.

In a prespecified secondary analysis of the DELIVER trial, Scott D. Solomon, MD, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and colleagues found that starting dapagliflozin during or shortly after hospitalization for HF is safe and effective for patients with mildly reduced or preserved ejection fraction.

On November 5—7, 2022, experts from the Brigham’s Heart and Vascular Center will join thousands of colleagues in raising awareness and improving cardiovascular health at this year’s American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions.

Brigham researchers confirmed that non-heart failure (HF) hospitalizations are burdensome for patients who have HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), who tend to have more noncardiac comorbidities than patients who have HF with reduced ejection fraction.