Multiple key cardiology trials with the potential to change practice or advance understanding have been presented over the past 12 months at international meetings, including the American College of Cardiology (ACC, Chicago, USA, March 2012), European Association for Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EuroPCR, Paris, France, May 2012), European Society of Cardiology (ESC, Munich, Germany, August 2012), Transcatheter Cardiovascular
Therapeutics (TCT, Miami, USA, October 2012), and the American Heart Association (AHA, Los Angeles, USA, November 2012). In this paper, the authors describe and place in clinical context new
acute coronary syndrome data, including use of oral antiplatelets and
anticoagulants (
prasugrel,
rivaroxaban,
vorapaxar), personalized antiplatelet
therapy guided by platelet aggregometry,
glucose-
insulin-
potassium infusion, and changing trends in
myocardial infarction. New trial data are also described for interventional cardiology (revascularization in multivessel disease, fractional flow reserve-guided intervention, radial access, bioabsorbable
polymer stents, drug-eluting balloons, intraaortic balloon pump use,
transcatheter aortic valve implantation), in
heart failure (copeptin,
angiotensin receptor neprilysin inhibition,
aldosterone blockade in
diastolic heart failure,
biventricular pacing),
atrial fibrillation (surgical ablation, antithrombotic strategy after stenting),
implantable defibrillator use, and in prevention (renal
denervation in
hypertension,
dalcetrapib,
lomitapide,
proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 in
dyslipidemia,
insulin glargine/
fish oils, and
bariatric surgery in diabetes).