Caitlin Cox

News Editor at TCTMD

News Editor @TCTMD | Associate Director, Editorial Content @CRFheart | Knitter & Nerd | Winner of the 2020 @NIHCMfoundation Trade Journalism Award | She/Her

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Articles

Cannabis Use Doubles the Risk of CV Death: Meta-analysis

4 days ago | tctmd.com | Caitlin Cox

The observational data can’t capture details like the timing, amount, and type of exposure. Still, there’s a “safety signal.” Cannabis use does in fact raise the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events—acute coronary syndromes, stroke, and CV death—a new meta-analysis confirms, though many specifics related to the type and amount of exposure are still elusive.
Valve Thrombosis in TTVR Not Uncommon: Meta-analysis

1 week ago | tctmd.com | Caitlin Cox

Most cases are subclinical, but given the newness of the therapy, it’s necessary to keep tabs on the issue going forward. Approximately one in nine patients develop leaflet thrombosis in the first 10 months after transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement (TTVR), according to a meta-analysis. Most cases are subclinical, but researchers say they may yet be tied to future problems, so it’s important to keep tabs on the complication as the treatment’s use expands. Led by Mark J.
AHA Offers a Primer on Alcohol’s CV Impact, Areas of Uncertainty

2 weeks ago | tctmd.com | Caitlin Cox

Alcohol is a hot topic—the new statement sums up the evidence and provides ways to help patients understand the risks. Much is still unknown about whether—if at all—alcohol consumption fits into a lifestyle that promotes cardiovascular health, according to a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Mariann R.
AI in the ICU: Algorithm Aims to Guide Glucose Control After Cardiac Surgery

2 weeks ago | tctmd.com | Caitlin Cox

The GLUCOSE model recommends insulin doses that are tailored to each patient’s blood-sugar fluctuations. For patients recovering after cardiac surgery, a new algorithm based on artificial intelligence (AI) could streamline the process of tracking shifts in glucose and adjusting insulin accordingly, researchers say. The reinforcement-learning model, known as GLUCOSE, is designed to recommend insulin doses tailored to each patient’s needs with the hope of avoiding unnecessary complications.
Dual Approach the Best Remedy for Aortic Stenosis, Amyloidosis: Registry

2 weeks ago | tctmd.com | Caitlin Cox

The advent of ATTR-specific drugs, though pricey, is enabling better survival in these overlapping diseases, researchers say. With targeted treatment using both medical therapy for transthyretin-associated cardiac amyloidosis (ATTR-CA) and valve replacement for aortic stenosis (AS), patients with the dual pathology can fare quite well, according to registry data from the AS-Amyloidosis Consortium.
EMS Practices for OHCA Diverge Between Black/Hispanic, White Areas

3 weeks ago | tctmd.com | Caitlin Cox

This explains at least some of the racial/ethnic gaps in survival, researchers say. Harder to pinpoint is exactly why practices differ. Emergency medical services (EMS) agencies that serve predominantly Black/Hispanic areas differ in their approaches to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) compared with those serving mostly white populations, survey data show.
TCTMD’s Top 10 Most Popular Stories for May 2025

4 weeks ago | tctmd.com | Caitlin Cox

News Opinion Editor's Corner Our most-read articles explore “occlusion MI” versus STEMI, TAVI in asymptomatic AS, and highlights from recent conferences. For May, TCTMD’s top 10 stories highlight the field’s greatest hits—TAVI in asymptomatic patients, the vagaries of statin decision-making, embolic protection woes, the latest on SGLT2 inhibitors, pulsed-field ablation safety, and more.
Pressure-Based Physiological Testing Results Diverge Between LAD, LCx

1 month ago | tctmd.com | Caitlin Cox

Relying on iFR/FFR values from the LCx alone could mean many patients with left main disease miss out on revascularization. For patients with isolated left main (LM) coronary artery disease, pressure-based physiological testing—whether by fractional flow reserve (FFR) or instantaneous wave-free ratio (iFR)—reveals different findings based on the territory in which the assessment is done, new data show.
What’s the Damage With Long COVID? Advanced Imaging Reveals Clues

1 month ago | tctmd.com | Caitlin Cox

Researchers used PET/MRI to detect otherwise invisible inflammation. Less clear is how this might influence patient care. Many patients referred for specialty care to address long-COVID symptoms have subtle evidence of inflammation and other cardiopulmonary abnormalities that can be detected with advanced imaging, a single-center study shows.
Registry Data Rekindle Talk Over the Best Valve for TAVI in Small Annuli

1 month ago | tctmd.com | Caitlin Cox

As in the SMART trial, early hemodynamic differences have yet to result in a clinical impact—but it may just be a matter of time. Debates over which transcatheter valves work best in small aortic annuli are being rekindled by new observational data—like the SMART trial before it, the IMPPACT TAVR registry shows no mortality difference between balloon-expandable and self-expanding devices a few years after treatment.