Articles in 2025

In this Tools of the Trade article, Foster and Tabish describe their development of a perfusion platform that recapitulates fundamental haemodynamic features of the human coronary circulation within a controlled flow and pressure environment.

Sura Markos discusses the findings from the INVICTUS trial and the implications for anticoagulation strategies in patients with rheumatic atrial fibrillation, particularly in low-resource settings.

Tatyana Storozhenko describes the initial studies that demonstrated that the utility of coronary computed tomography angiography extends beyond diagnosis and prevention into the guidance of coronary interventions.

In the VESALIUS-CV trial, the PCSK9 inhibitor evolocumab reduced the risk of a first cardiovascular event in patients with atherosclerosis or diabetes mellitus but without a previous myocardial infarction or stroke.

In this Comment, I propose an outcome-oriented classification of heart failure based on skeletal muscle mass. By distinguishing between heart failure with either preserved or reduced muscle mass, this conceptual framework represents a major step towards abandoning the misleading concept of the ‘obesity–mortality paradox’ in cardiology.

Andrea Zambrano highlights the study that catalysed the field of reverse cardio-oncology by showing that myocardial infarction promotes breast tumour growth in mice.

Liu and Bursill highlight a landmark study that described the presence of in-stent neoatherosclerosis in bare-metal and drug-eluting stents, which has reshaped the clinical management of coronary artery disease.

Psychosocial stress is a major, modifiable driver of hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Transcendental Meditation can effectively lower blood pressure, improve cardiometabolic health and might even reduce clinical cardiovascular disease events. Recognizing Transcendental Meditation within prevention frameworks could transform stress management from a lifestyle option into a core strategy for cardiovascular protection.

Annelise Poss discusses the importance of mouse substrain selection in models of cardiovascular research, highlighting a study that demonstrated the influence of mouse substrain genetic diversity on the phenotypic characteristics of the disease model.

The 2021 American Heart Association scientific statement on the ‘mind–heart–body connection’ brought psychological health on to the cardiovascular stage. A new 2025 European Society of Cardiology clinical consensus statement advances this field, translating concepts into operational pathways with screening algorithms, stepped care and pharmacotherapy guidance. Together, these recommendations mark a pivotal shift, moving from why mental health matters in cardiology to how it can be systematically delivered in practice.

Shafqat Ahmad and Gull Rukh discuss a landmark, twin-based, epidemiological study that highlighted how genetic predisposition and environmental factors interact to influence the risk of coronary heart disease.

Valtteri Muroke discusses the LoDoCo trial, in which treatment with low-dose colchicine was shown to reduce cardiovascular end points in patients with stable coronary artery disease, identifying anti-inflammatory therapy as an effective strategy for the secondary prevention of cardiovascular events.

New evidence from five randomized trials suggests that withholding β-blockers after myocardial infarction (MI) is safe for carefully selected, low-risk patients. However, even if β-blockers are not required to treat ventricular dysfunction, hypertension or arrhythmias, it might still be wiser to continue treatment during the vulnerable period immediately after MI and withdraw treatment several months later.

In this Review, Zhao and colleagues summarize the major challenges in the implementation of preventative strategies for cardiovascular disease in China and discuss the potential value of digital health-care and artificial intelligence technologies in overcoming these challenges.

Women in cardiology have long faced barriers, but their leadership is redefining the field. By turning bias into opportunity and exclusion into inclusion, initiatives such as Women As One are opening doors, advancing equity and shaping a more innovative, representative future for cardiovascular care.

In patients with chronic coronary syndrome and an indication for oral anticoagulation, whether continuation of antiplatelet therapy in the initial phase after percutaneous coronary intervention is appropriate in Western populations with high atherothrombotic risk was previously unclear. The AQUATIC trial now shows that continuation of antiplatelet therapy increases the risk of both bleeding and ischaemic events in these patients.

In patients with residual inflammation after acute myocardial infarction, antibody-mediated antagonism of the oxidized LDL receptor LOX1 does not induce significant regression of noncalcified atherosclerotic plaque volume over the course of 9 months compared with placebo, according to the GOLDILOX-TIMI 69 trial.

In this Review, Nicholas Chew and colleagues use epidemiological data on the cardiovascular–liver–metabolic disease syndemic to illustrate current and future projections on the burden of these diseases and their risk factors, and propose a unified framework for integrating and implementing effective multisystem interventions to tackle key components of this syndemic.

In this Review, Omerovic and Redfors discuss the historical background, clinical presentation and current best practices for the diagnosis and management of Takotsubo syndrome. They also summarize the current understanding of the complex pathophysiology of Takotsubo syndrome, highlighting ongoing and potential future research directions.

In this Review, Paterson and colleagues describe how bioelectronic approaches involving site-specific targeting of the autonomic nervous circuit could be used to treat cardiovascular disease, and reflect on current bioelectronic modalities, their limitations and future ways to improve therapeutic efficiency.