Coronary artery disease and heart failure: Late-breaking trials presented at American Heart Association scientific session 2023

The late-breaking science presented at the 2023 scientific session of the American Heart Association paves the way for future pragmatic trials and provides meaningful information to guide management strategies in coronary artery disease and heart failure (HF). The dapagliflozin in patient with acute myocardial infarction (DAPA-MI) trial showed that dapagliflozin use among patients with acute MI without a history of diabetes mellitus or chronic HF has better cardiometabolic outcomes compared with placebo, with no difference in cardiovascular outcomes. The MINT trial showed that in patients with acute MI and anemia (Hgb < 10 g/dL), a liberal transfusion goal (Hgb ≥ 10 g/dL) was not superior to a restrictive strategy (Hgb 7-8 g/dL) with respect to 30-day all-cause death and recurrent MI. The ORBITA-2 trial showed that among patients with stable angina and coronary stenoses causing ischemia on little or no antianginal therapy, percutaneous coronary intervention results in greater improvements in anginal frequency and exercise times compared with a sham procedure. The ARIES-HM3 trial showed that in patients with advanced HF who received a HeartMate 3 levitated left ventricular assist device and were anticoagulated with a vitamin K antagonist, placebo was noninferior to daily aspirin with respect to the composite endpoint of bleeding and thrombotic events at 1 year. The TEAMMATE trial showed that everolimus with low-dose tacrolimus is safe in children and young adults when given ≥ 6 months after cardiac transplantation. Providing patients being treated for HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) with specific out-of-pocket (OOP) costs for multiple medication options at the time of the clinical encounter may reduce ‘contingency planning’ and increase the extent to which patients are taking the medications decided upon. The primary outcome, which was cost-informed decision-making, defined as the clinician or patient mentioning costs of HFrEF medication, occurred in 49% of encounters with the checklist only control group compared with 68% of encounters in the OOP cost group.