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.
A study has associated the consumption of the sweetener erythritol with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, specifically myocardial infarction and stroke. The data are published in the journal Nature Medicine.
Research analysing data from more than 100,000 people in the UK followed for nearly a decade concludes that a higher intake of free sugars - added sugars or those naturally present in honey and fruit juice - is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The study is published in BMC Medicine.
Ischaemia-reperfusion injury is one of the causes of damage caused by diseases such as myocardial infarction. A study published in the journal Science has used base editors, a gene-editing tool derived from CRISPR, to modify a key protein in the hearts of mice. According to the authors, the intervention allowed them to recover their function after a heart attack and could potentially be used in a wide range of patients, as it does not depend on the presence of a specific mutation.
A study published in the BMJ looks at the risk of thromboembolic events associated with different covid-19 vaccines, both adenovirus- and mRNA-based. Its results are based on data collected from more than 10 million adults in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK and the US who received at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine from December 2020 to mid-2021.