Physician Update: AHA Special Edition
Read more articles from our most relevant research presented at the 2021 AHA Scientific Sessions.
Clinical Heart and Vascular Center
Circulation Symposium at #AHA21
By Joseph A. Hill, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Biology
Chief of Cardiology
Editor-in-Chief, Circulation
Once again, we were pleased to host our annual Circulation symposium at AHA Scientific Sessions 2021, this year titled “Circulation: Innovation in Cardiovascular Science and Medicine.” In the session, shortened from three hours to one owing to the virtual nature of the meeting, we invited senior authors to discuss several of the best papers we published. As in years past, we canvassed the various types of content in the journal.
Representing our short, Frame of Reference content, Dr. Robert Califf discussed his paper titled “Avoiding the Coming Tsunami of Common, Chronic Disease.” There, he presented evidence for recent and significant regression of health care outcomes in our nation, preceding the pandemic and exacerbated by it. Dr. Paul Armstrong, who leads the journal’s Global Rounds series aimed at “visiting” a different country around the world quarterly, provided a fascinating overview of cardiovascular care in Russia, the U.K., and Italy.
“In aggregate, this exciting symposium provided a brief summary of some of the most outstanding cardiovascular science published in Circulation.”
We discussed three Original Research Articles. The winner of the Willerson Award for the best clinical/population science paper was a study that pioneered the use of circulating cell-free DNA in the surveillance for post-cardiac transplant rejection. The results of that study demonstrated impressive early sensitivity and specificity coupled with evidence to suggest the ability to distinguish antibody-mediated rejection versus acute cellular rejection (presented by Dr. Hannah Valantine). We also reviewed the article that won the Loscalzo Award for best basic/translational paper focused on pathbreaking molecular analyses of human cardiac tissue samples from patients with HFpEF or HFrEF (presented by Dr. Kavita Sharma). Finally, Dr. Jeffrey Testani discussed an important study analyzing the diuretic effects of SGLT2 inhibitors.
As an exemplary State of the Art review, Dr. Amber Johnson presented her paper focusing on racial diversity among American cardiologists, which she discussed with input from her energetic young daughter in the room! In aggregate, this exciting symposium provided a brief summary of some of the most outstanding cardiovascular science published in Circulation.
Email: joseph.hill@utsouthwestern.edu
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