American Heart Association, Nov. 13-15

The annual meeting of the American Heart Association was held virtually this year from Nov. 13 to 15 and attracted participants from around the world, including cardiovascular specialists, surgeons, and nurses as well as other health care professionals. The conference featured presentations focusing on the latest advances in cardiovascular medicine and surgery.

In one study, Krishna Aragam, M.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues found that genetic analyses of biobank populations linked to medical records present a viable (and scalable) approach to uncover the population genetic determinants of dilated cardiomyopathy.

The authors reviewed cases of dilated cardiomyopathy by querying the electronic health record within the National Veterans Administration Healthcare System. Specifically, a genome-wide association analysis was conducted to link specific genetic variants to the disease. The authors combined the genetic variants linked to dilated cardiomyopathy to construct genetic risk scores highly predictive of incident dilated cardiomyopathy. The researchers identified several regions of the genome associated with the heart muscle disorder.

“The identification of genetic variants linked to dilated cardiomyopathy may provide insights into possible therapeutic targets for the disease,” Aragam said. “In addition, the development of relevant genetic risk scores has the potential to help preempt and prevent dilated cardiomyopathy in the years to come.”

Press Release

In a cross-sectional observational study, David Flomenbaum, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, and colleagues found that greater adherence to Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) or Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) dietary plans is associated with healthier cardiac structure and systolic function in Hispanic/Latino adults.

The authors used unadjusted linear regression models to analyze associations between dietary adherence scores and echocardiographic measurements of cardiac structure and function. The findings suggested that diet quality, as measured by adherence to either the AHEI or the DASH eating plan, is associated with better systolic function in Hispanic/Latino adults as reflected by ejection fraction and global longitudinal strain on echocardiography, with diet quality showing a larger effect size on ejection fraction. Adherence to the DASH diet was also associated with decreased left ventricular mass.