ABSTRACT The 2023 Australian Guideline for Assessing and Managing Cardiovascular Disease Risk with its new calculator takes a more holistic approach to estimating risk and patient classification. Apart from the classic risk factors of age, sex, smoking status, diabetes, blood pressure (BP) and lipids, it also considers the use of BP-lowering and lipid-modifying medicines, a diagnosis of atrial…
Read More
ABSTRACT Cardiac amyloidosis is an under-recognised cause of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and is more common in older patients. With new disease-modifying treatments available, early and accurate diagnosis is crucial to improve outcomes. Patients should be referred to a specialist or specialised amyloidosis clinic. KEY POINTS
Read More
ABSTRACT Pulmonary hypertension (abnormally elevated pulmonary artery pressure; PH) is often identified during investigation of shortness of breath. Most often it is a result of underlying cardiac and chronic respiratory diseases. Although most commonly due to left heart disease, sometimes it is due to chronic pulmonary arterial disease (WHO Group 1 PH), for which targeted…
Read More
ABSTRACT A new paradigm for lipid-lowering therapy involves early initiation of upfront statin and ezetimibe combination therapy for patients at high or very high risk of cardiovascular disease. Because there is now substantial evidence for this strategy, it has been included in recent guidelines for lipid-lowering. KEY POINTS Removal of the PBS restrictions on ezetimibe…
Read More