Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Stroke / 03.04.2025

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sai Rahul Ponnana, M.S Advanced Data Analytics Research Analyst Cardiovascular Research Institute Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Wolstein Research Building, Cleveland, OH. 44106-7288 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Microplastics are tiny plastic particles less than 5 mm which have become a pervasive environmental pollutant, detectable in air, water, food, and even human tissues. While their ecological impacts have been well-documented, their influence on human health, particularly cardiovascular health, remains underexplored. Recent mechanistic studies suggest that microplastics can induce inflammation, oxidative stress, and endothelial dysfunction, all of which are pathways implicated in chronic disease and ASCVD. In our study, we analyzed a total of 709 U.S. coastal census tracts to investigate the association between marine microplastic concentration data obtained from NOAA NCEI database and the prevalence of stroke and other chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as high blood pressure and diabetes, sourced from CDC places database. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 28.02.2023

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Muchi Ditah Chobufo MD MPH Cardiology Fellow West Virginia University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Ischemic heart diseases are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the USA. Also, there exists alarming ethnic disparities in mortality rates following acute myocardial infarction. To this effect, significant efforts have been deployed over the years to curb its burden and reduce extant disparities. It is in this light that we set out to analyze general and ethnic specific trends in acute myocardial infarction related age adjusted mortality rates (AAMR) in the entire USA from 1999-2020.  (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Technology, Yale / 09.11.2022

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lovedeep Singh Dhingra, MBBS Postdoctoral Research Associate Cardiovascular Data Science (CarDS) Lab Yale School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Wearable devices are shown to have multiple health-related features, including heart rate and activity monitoring, ECG tracing, and blood pressure monitoring. In our analyses of the nationally-representative Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS), we discovered that patients with and at risk of cardiovascular disease are less likely to use wearables. Older patients, patients with lower education, and patients with lower incomes are less likely to use wearables. Also, among adults with access to wearables, patients with cardiovascular disease use their devices less frequently as compared to the overall population. (more…)
Author Interviews, Dermatology, Heart Disease, JACC, NYU / 17.05.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michael S. Garshick, MD Assistant Professor Department of Medicine Grossman School of Medicine NYU MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Patients with psoriasis have a 50% higher risk of cardiovascular disease when compared to patients without psoriasis, the mechanisms of which are still under investigation Dyslipidemia is also highly prevalent in psoriasis including elevation in a variety of lipoproteins causal in atherosclerosis. Lipoprotein(a) is an LDL like particle which is associated with atherosclerosis, atherothrombosis, and the development of clinical cardiovascular disease. Traditionally lipoprotein(a) is felt to be inherited rather than acquired, but some evidence suggest that lipoprotein(a) is elevated in those with underlying inflammatory conditions and associated with systemic inflammation including circulating IL-6. We therefore aimed to determine if lipoprotein(a) is elevated in psoriasis and associated with underlying systemic inflammatory profiles and biomarkers of cardiovascular risk.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, JACC, Race/Ethnic Diversity, Transplantation, Yale / 17.05.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michael Fuery, MD Department of Internal Medicine Yale School of Medicine Katherine Clark, MD MBA Division of Cardiovascular Medicine Department of Internal Medicine Yale School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?   Response: Racial and ethnic disparities affect cardiac transplantation outcomes. In cohort analyses of racial and ethnic groups from the previous three decades, Black patients were constantly at a higher risk of mortality after cardiac transplantation. In 2018, the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) revised the allocation system to expand access to organs for the most medically urgent patients and reduce disparities and regional differences. We sought to evaluate contemporary trends and impact of the new 2018 allocation system. (more…)
Author Interviews, Columbia, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Exercise - Fitness, Heart Disease, JAMA / 05.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: David J. Engel, MD, FACC Division of Cardiology Columbia University Irving Medical Center New York, New York MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: ​​Early reports and observations in the COVID-19 pandemic found that patients recovering from mild to severe forms of COVID-19 illness had a higher prevalence of cardiac injury in comparison with what historically has been seen and reported with other viruses. This cardiac injury, categorized as inflammatory heart disease, could have serious implications, including a risk for exercise-triggered sudden cardiac death, for athletes and highly active people who have had prior COVID-19 illness and who return to intensive exercise activity with unknowing subclinical cardiac injury. To address these concerns in COVID positive athletes, the ACC generated return to play cardiac screening recommendations (troponin blood test, ECG, resting echocardiogram) for all competitive athletes after COVID-19 infection prior to resumption of competitive and intensive sport activity. The professional leagues were among the first organizations to return to full-scale sport activity in the setting of the pandemic, and they uniformly adopted and implemented the ACC return to play screening recommendations for all athletes that tested positive for COVID-19. The leagues recognized that there was value in collaborating and formally analyzing their pooled cardiac data, not only for league athlete health and safety purposes, but also to share broadly this information to add to the growing body of knowledge about the virus. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Prostate Cancer / 20.11.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jeffrey L. Anderson, MD FAHA FACC MACP Distinguished Research Physician Professor of Medicine with Tenure University of Utah School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Omega-3 supplements are widely used for cardiovascular prevention. However, a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (105:1132, 2013) reported as an incidental finding in a plasma bank study that the risk of prostate cancer increased with increasing levels of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and trended to increase with eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). (more…)