Strategies for the Prevention of Coronary Artery Disease Complications: Can We Do Better?

Identifying and Treating Vulnerable Atherosclerotic Plaques

Acute coronary syndromes and, in particular, ST-elevation myocardial infarction are usually caused by coronary thrombosis in which the thrombus develops either on a disrupted plaque (usually a thin-capped fibroatheroma) or an eroded atherosclerotic plaque. These thrombus-prone plaques are vulnerable or high-risk. Although, traditionally, cardiologists have concentrated on treating significant coronary obstruction, there has been great interest over the last 2 decades in possibly preventing the thrombotic causes of myocardial infarction/sudden coronary death by mostly identifying and stabilizing these asymptomatic vulnerable or high-risk plaques, which, at least on invasive angiography, are mostly nonobstructive. Computed tomographic angiography and intravascular imaging during invasive coronary angiography have now been shown to identify a majority of these vulnerable or high-risk plaques before symptoms, thus opening up new preventive strategies. In conclusion, this article discusses the identification and management of these thrombus-prone lesions and patients with these lesions either with noninvasive techniques and systemic therapies or possibly through a new and bold interventional paradigm.

Myeloid-specific knockout of SHP2 regulates PI3K/PLCγ signaling pathway to protect against early myocardial infarction injury

OBJECTIVES

To study the effects of myeloid-specific knockout of SHP2 on early myocardial infarction and explore its molecular mechanism.

METHODS

The model of myocardial infarction was established by using SHP2 in myeloid-specific knockout mice, and the effect of SHP2MAC-KO on myocardial function was detected by echocardiography. The effects of SHP2 on myocardial infarct size in myeloid-specific knockout mice was examined by TTC assay and Masson staining. Then, the detection of apoptosis was performed using TUNEL staining and inflammatory cell infiltration was observed using immunohistochemical staining. Moreover, macrophages in mouse hearts were selected by Flow Cytometry and treated with PI3K inhibitors respectively. Western blotting was then used to detect protein expression of p-SHP2 and PI3K/PLCγ signaling pathway. The phagocytic ability of cells was detected by endocytosis test, and the expression of inflammatory cytokines was detected by ELISA.

RESULTS

Specific knockout of SHP2 in mice with myocardial infarction can improve the cardiac function, decrease infarct size, and reduce apoptosis as well as inflammatory cell infiltration. It also can mediate the PI3K/PLCγ signaling pathway in macrophages, which in turn enhances the endocytosis of macrophages and reduces the expression of inflammatory cytokines in macrophages.

CONCLUSIONS

Myeloid-specific knockout of SHP2 regulates PI3K/PLCγ signaling pathway to protect against early myocardial infarction injury.

Progression to myocardial infarction short-term death based on interval sequential pattern mining

BACKGROUND

Myocardial infarction (MI) is one of the significant cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). According to Taiwanese health record analysis, the hazard rate reaches a peak in the initial year after diagnosis of MI, drops to a relatively low value, and maintains stable for the following years. Therefore, identifying suspicious comorbidity patterns of short-term death before the diagnosis may help achieve prolonged survival for MI patients.

METHODS

Interval sequential pattern mining was applied with odds ratio to the hospitalization records from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database to evaluate the disease progression and identify potential subjects at the earliest possible stage.

RESULTS

Our analysis resulted in five disease pathways, including "diabetes mellitus," "other disorders of the urethra and urinary tract," "essential hypertension," "hypertensive heart disease," and "other forms of chronic ischemic heart disease" that led to short-term death after MI diagnosis, and these pathways covered half of the cohort.

CONCLUSION

We explored the possibility of establishing trajectory patterns to identify the high-risk population of early mortality after MI.

Long-Term Coronary Artery Disease Risk Prediction with Machine Learning Models

The heart is the most vital organ of the human body; thus, its improper functioning has a significant impact on human life. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a disease of the coronary arteries through which the heart is nourished and oxygenated. It is due to the formation of atherosclerotic plaques on the wall of the epicardial coronary arteries, resulting in the narrowing of their lumen and the obstruction of blood flow through them. Coronary artery disease can be delayed or even prevented with lifestyle changes and medical intervention. Long-term risk prediction of coronary artery disease will be the area of interest in this work. In this specific research paper, we experimented with various machine learning (ML) models after the use or non-use of the synthetic minority oversampling technique (SMOTE), evaluating and comparing them in terms of accuracy, precision, recall and an area under the curve (AUC). The results showed that the stacking ensemble model after the SMOTE with 10-fold cross-validation prevailed over the other models, achieving an accuracy of 90.9 %, a precision of 96.7%, a recall of 87.6% and an AUC equal to 96.1%.

Lifetime risk assessment in cholesterol management among hypertensive patients: observational cross-sectional study based on electronic health record data

BACKGROUND

In hypertensive patients, reducing plasma low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level (LDL-C) is one of the main interventions for preventing chronic cardiovascular diseases (CVD). However, LDL-C control remains generally insufficient, also in patients with hypertension. We analyzed Electronic Health Record (EHR) data of 7117 hypertensive patients to find the most potential age and sex subgroups in greatest need for improvement in real life dyslipidemia treatment. Taking into account the current discussion on lifetime CVD risk, we focused on the age dependence in LDL-C control.

METHODS

In this observational cross-sectional study, based on routine electronic health record (EHR) data, we investigated LDL-C control of hypertensive, non-diabetic patients without renal dysfunction or CVD, aged 30 years or more in Finnish primary care setting.

RESULTS

More than half (54% of women and 53% of men) of untreated patients did not meet the LDL-C target of < 3 mmol/l and one third (35% of women and 33% of men) of patients did not reach the target even with the lipid-lowering medication (LLM). Furthermore, higher age was strongly associated with better LDL-C control (p < 0.001) and lower LDL-C level (p < 0.001) in individuals with and without LLM. Higher age was also strongly associated with LLM prescription (p < 0.001). In total, about half of the patients were on LLM (53% of women and 51% of men).

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings indicate that dyslipidemia treatment among Finnish primary care hypertensive patients is generally insufficient, particularly in younger age groups who might benefit the most from CVD risk reduction over time. Clinicians should probably rely more on the lifetime risk of CVD, especially when treating working age hypertensive patients.

Inflammation and Thrombosis in Coronary Atherosclerosis: Pathophysiologic Mechanisms and Clinical Correlations

Inflammation and thrombosis are interrelated processes that are important in the pathogenesis of atherothrombosis. Inflammation is important in both the early and late stages of atherosclerosis, and it involves elements of immune system activation. Low density lipoprotein (LDL) is an important initiator but is not the only one. LDL enters the cell membrane, is modified, and sets into motion a series of events that stimulate the ingress of specific proinflammatory mononuclear cells through the vessel wall. These cells imbibe lipids and form foam cells. Proinflammatory mediators secreted by these cells can eventually lead to intimal thickening and lipid accumulation, forming atherosclerotic plaques. A complex interplay between inflammation, platelet function, and hypercoagulability is a major contributor to the progression from stable to unstable plaque and an acute coronary event. In the later stages of atherosclerosis, inflammatory cells can destabilise certain lipid-rich lesions contributing to symptomatic coronary thrombosis. Thus, thrombosis is the final common pathway for most atherosclerotic complications. Thrombi may also contribute to the asymptomatic rapid progression of atherosclerotic lesions. While antithrombotic agents are important in the treatment of acute coronary syndromes, as well as preventive therapy in high-risk primary prevention and in secondary prevention, the role of specific anti-inflammatory agents is not currently established. If such therapies are to become routine, these anti-inflammatory drugs must significantly reduce events while not adversely affecting a patient’s natural immunity to an extent that erases any potential benefit. This article reviews these two processes with an emphasis on coronary atherosclerosis and its sequelae.

Understanding myocardial infarction

Over the last 40 years, our understanding of the pathogenesis of myocardial infarction has evolved and allowed new treatment strategies that have greatly improved survival. Over the years, there has been a radical shift in therapy from passive healing of the infarction through weeks of bed rest to early discharge usually within 2 to 3 days as a result of immediate reperfusion strategies and other guideline-directed medical therapies. Nevertheless, challenges remain. Patients who develop cardiogenic shock still face a high 30-day mortality of at least 40%. Perhaps even more important is how do we identify and prevent patients from developing myocardial infarction in the first place? This article discusses these milestones of therapy and considers important issues for progress in the future.