Welcome to the newest issue of the Methodist DeBakey Cardiovascular Journal. I am indebted to our guest editors James Young, MD, and Albert Raizner, MD, for curating this overview of therapeutic innovations in cardiovascular pharmacology. Both have dedicated decades to their profession and have witnessed, and facilitated, the dramatic rise in cardiovascular treatments, many of which have sparked a paradigm shift in patient care. They have provided extensive expertise and insight, as have all the authors who contributed to this issue, and I am grateful to them all.
The articles contained here acknowledge the current arsenal of cardiovascular (CV) therapeutics while also exploring the latest innovations and treatments—some of which have supplanted older commonly used therapies and sparked new guideline recommendations. We open with a review on essential hypertension, a condition that can easily be treated with minimal differences between drug classes and generic versus brand names. Considering more complex conditions, we examine medical therapies for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, including the newest class of SGLT2 inhibitors. We also review different forms of cardiac amyloidosis, noting the problems of delayed diagnoses and suggesting opportunities for earlier identification and treatment.
Of special interest is our Q and A video—a new format for us—which features Dr. Steven Nissen sharing his first-hand experience with vetting one of the world’s best-selling drugs and how its downfall ultimately resulted in safer therapeutic options for diabetic patients. We also explore glucocentric drugs in CV disease protection and heart failure, including the CV risk profile of common older- and newer-generation drugs, and propose a new way of evaluating these drugs to enhance patient safety. Next, we point to the rise of catheter ablation and device therapies that are at the center of arrhythmia management as potentially curative, mechanistically driven approaches. And finally, we explore the limitless potential of using mRNA therapeutics to treat an array of CV diseases.
We invite you to share your clinical experiences, too, by submitting case reports and multimodality images at the submission link on our website. We continually publish unusual and visually interesting cases, which are peer reviewed and indexed in PubMed. Find our year-round repository of case reports, several that offer CME credit and offer interactive video quizzes, in the journal’s Case Reports Collection.
As always, I appreciate your ongoing interest and welcome your feedback.
Miguel A. Quiñones, MD, MACC, FASE
Editor-in-Chief
Methodist DeBakey Cardiovascular Journal
Winters Family Distinguished Centennial Chair
in Cardiovascular Education, Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center