cardiovascular diseases

Women who drink more than 300 millilitres of milk a day (i.e. more than one and a half glasses) have a higher risk of ischaemic heart disease and acute myocardial infarction than those who drink less than this amount, according to a study based on data from more than 100,000 adults in Sweden. The results show that, from 300 millilitres upwards, the risk is higher the more milk is ingested–but only in women, not men. Drinking fermented milk, such as yoghurt and kefir, has no correlation with these risks, according to the paper published in BMC Medicine.

The relative risk of being born with a major heart defect is 36% in babies conceived using assisted reproductive techniques, such as in vitro fertilisation, compared to newborns not using these techniques, according to a study published in the European Heart Journal. The absolute risk was 1.84% versus 1.15%. The research, which included more than seven million babies born in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, also shows that the increased risk is especially associated with multiple births, which are more common in assisted reproduction.
 

In a study published in the journal Nature Medicine, a team of researchers from the National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) proposes a new cardiovascular risk factor to add to those already known. It is clonal hematopoiesis, a phenomenon caused by acquired mutations in blood stem cells. Furthermore, in a separate study published in the European Heart Journal, they suggest that the drug colchicine could serve to reduce its effects.

Drinking alcohol and sleeping in hypobaric conditions - such as those of an aircraft cabin - could be a risk to cardiovascular health, a study warns. Researchers compared a group of 23 people sleeping in a laboratory with another group of 17 people sleeping in a high-altitude chamber, replicating conditions at about 2,400 metres above sea level. The combination of alcohol consumption and hypobaric hypoxia during the simulation "reduced sleep quality, challenged the cardiovascular system and led to extended duration of hypoxaemia," the authors state in the journal Thorax.

Research published a few days ago in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) found a considerable and hitherto unknown degree of micro- and nanoplastic contamination in human arteries. It was a bit of a surprise that NEJM accepted the paper, as it usually publishes little on the environmental causes of human disease. The good thing is that the publication makes visible, legitimises, stirs up and will encourage other similar work.
 

A study in South Korea followed more than 160,000 women for more than eight years and concluded that infection with different strains of human papillomavirus is associated with a fourfold increase in the relative risk of dying from cardiovascular causes. According to the authors, "it could be that the virus causes inflammation in the blood vessels, contributing to blockage and damage to the arteries". The findings are published in the European Heart Journal.

A dietary shift from animal-based foods, such as red or processed meat and eggs, to plant-based foods, such as nuts, pulses and whole grains, is associated with a reduced risk of death and diabetes or cardiovascular disease. For example, replacing 50 grams of processed meat per day with 28-50 grams of nuts is associated with a 27% decrease in cardiovascular risk. These are the conclusions of a systematic review of 37 studies published in the journal BMC Medicine.

On 5 April, the UK National IHR Focal Point informed WHO of an increase in severe myocarditis in neonates associated with enterovirus infection in Wales (UK). Between June 2022 and April 2023, ten hospitalised neonates with a positive PCR for enterovirus were found to have myocarditis. Seven of the ten cases were confirmed to have coxsackievirus B3 or coxsackievirus B4. As of 5 May 2023, one patient remained hospitalised and one patient had died. According to the WHO statement, although enterovirus infections are common in neonates and infants, the reported increase in myocarditis - inflammation of heart muscle tissue - with severe outcome associated with enterovirus infection is unusual.

The functioning of the heart can be studied by the percentage of blood it pumps with each beat, deduced by imaging techniques. Based on analyses by cardiologists, a US clinical trial concludes that an artificial intelligence model outperforms examinations initially performed by imaging technicians in terms of accuracy. According to the authors, the tool could "save physicians time and minimise the most tedious parts of the process".

A review of studies of more than 700,000 women has estimated that those who follow a Mediterranean diet faithfully have about a 25% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and death. This effect is greater than had been found in other studies, many of which included a majority of men and did not differentiate results by sex. According to the authors, the study underscores the need for this type of targeted analysis. The results are published in the journal Heart.