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In a trial involving patients with infrapopliteal artery disease, the use of a drug-eluting resorbable scaffold was superior to angioplasty in reducing reintervention and maintaining patency at 1 year.

Myocardial injury after non-cardiac surgery (MINS) increases the risk of cardiovascular events and deaths, which anticoagulation therapy could prevent. Dabigatran prevents perioperative venous thromboembolism, but whether this drug can prevent a broader range of vascular complications in patients with MINS is unknown. The MANAGE trial assessed the potential of dabigatran to prevent major vascular complications among such patients. In this international, randomised, placebo-controlled trial, we recruited patients from 84 hospitals in 19 countries. Eligible patients were aged at least 45 years, had undergone non-cardiac surgery, and were within 35 days of MINS. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive dabigatran 110 mg orally twice daily or matched placebo for a maximum of 2 years or until termination of the trial and, using a partial 2-by-2 factorial design, patients not taking a proton-pump inhibitor were also randomly assigned (1:1) to omeprazole 20 mg once daily, for which results will be reported elsewhere, or matched placebo to measure its effect on major upper gastrointestinal complications. Research personnel randomised patients through a central 24 h computerised randomisation system using block randomisation, stratified by centre. Patients, health-care providers, data collectors, and outcome adjudicators were masked to treatment allocation. The primary efficacy outcome was the occurrence of a major vascular complication, a composite of vascular mortality and non-fatal myocardial infarction, non-haemorrhagic stroke, peripheral arterial thrombosis, amputation, and symptomatic venous thromboembolism. The primary safety outcome was a composite of life-threatening, major, and critical organ bleeding. Analyses were done according to the intention-to-treat principle. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01661101. Between Jan 10, 2013, and July 17, 2017, we randomly assigned 1754 patients to receive dabigatran (n=877) or placebo (n=877); 556 patients were also randomised in the omeprazole partial factorial component. Study drug was permanently discontinued in 401 (46%) of 877 patients allocated to dabigatran and 380 (43%) of 877 patients allocated to placebo. The composite primary efficacy outcome occurred in fewer patients randomised to dabigatran than placebo (97 [11%] of 877 patients assigned to dabigatran vs 133 [15%] of 877 patients assigned to placebo; hazard ratio [HR] 0·72, 95% CI 0·55–0·93; p=0·0115). The primary safety composite outcome occurred in 29 patients (3%) randomised to dabigatran and 31 patients (4%) randomised to placebo (HR 0·92, 95% CI 0·55–1·53; p=0·76). Among patients who had MINS, dabigatran 110 mg twice daily lowered the risk of major vascular complications, with no significant increase in major bleeding. Patients with MINS have a poor prognosis; dabigatran 110 mg twice daily has the potential to help many of the 8 million adults globally who have MINS to reduce their risk of a major vascular complication. Boehringer Ingelheim and Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Chronic limb-threatening ischaemia is the severest manifestation of peripheral arterial disease and presents with ischaemic pain at rest or tissue loss (ulceration, gangrene, or both), or both. We compared the effectiveness of a vein bypass first with a best endovascular treatment first revascularisation strategy in terms of preventing major amputation and death in patients with chronic limb threatening ischaemia who required an infra-popliteal, with or without an additional more proximal infra-inguinal, revascularisation procedure to restore limb perfusion. Bypass versus Angioplasty for Severe Ischaemia of the Leg (BASIL)-2 was an open-label, pragmatic, multicentre, phase 3, randomised trial done at 41 vascular surgery units in the UK (n=39), Sweden (n=1), and Denmark (n=1). Eligible patients were those who presented to hospital-based vascular surgery units with chronic limb-threatening ischaemia due to atherosclerotic disease and who required an infra-popliteal, with or without an additional more proximal infra-inguinal, revascularisation procedure to restore limb perfusion. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive either vein bypass (vein bypass group) or best endovascular treatment (best endovascular treatment group) as their first revascularisation procedure through a secure online randomisation system. Participants were excluded if they had ischaemic pain or tissue loss considered not to be primarily due to atherosclerotic peripheral artery disease. Most vein bypasses used the great saphenous vein and originated from the common or superficial femoral arteries. Most endovascular interventions comprised plain balloon angioplasty with selective use of plain or drug eluting stents. Participants were followed up for a minimum of 2 years. Data were collected locally at participating centres. In England, Wales, and Sweden, centralised databases were used to collect information on amputations and deaths. Data were analysed centrally at the Birmingham Clinical Trials Unit. The primary outcome was amputation-free survival defined as time to first major (above the ankle) amputation or death from any cause measured in the intention-to-treat population. Safety was assessed by monitoring serious adverse events up to 30-days after first revascularisation. The trial is registered with the ISRCTN registry, ISRCTN27728689. Between July 22, 2014, and Nov 30, 2020, 345 participants (65 [19%] women and 280 [81%] men; median age 72·5 years [62·7–79·3]) with chronic limb-threatening ischaemia were enrolled in the trial and randomly assigned: 172 (50%) to the vein bypass group and 173 (50%) to the best endovascular treatment group. Major amputation or death occurred in 108 (63%) of 172 patients in the vein bypass group and 92 (53%) of 173 patients in the best endovascular treatment group (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1·35 [95% CI 1·02–1·80]; p=0·037). 91 (53%) of 172 patients in the vein bypass group and 77 (45%) of 173 patients in the best endovascular treatment group died (adjusted HR 1·37 [95% CI 1·00–1·87]). In both groups the most common causes of morbidity and death, including that occurring within 30 days of their first revascularisation, were cardiovascular (61 deaths in the vein bypass group and 49 in the best endovascular treatment group) and respiratory events (25 deaths in the vein bypass group and 23 in the best endovascular treatment group; number of cardiovascular and respiratory deaths were not mutually exclusive). In the BASIL-2 trial, a best endovascular treatment first revascularisation strategy was associated with a better amputation-free survival, which was largely driven by fewer deaths in the best endovascular treatment group. These data suggest that more patients with chronic limb-threatening ischaemia who required an infra-popliteal, with or without an additional more proximal infra-inguinal, revascularisation procedure to restore limb perfusion should be considered for a best endovascular treatment first revascularisation strategy. UK National Institute of Health Research Health Technology Programme.

Among older men in Denmark, the incidence of death from any cause at a median follow-up of 5.6 years was not significantly lower among those randomly invited to undergo screening for subclinical cardiovascular disease.

Patients with peripheral artery disease who underwent revascularization were randomly assigned to receive rivaroxaban (2.5 mg twice daily) or placebo. All patients received aspirin. The primary outcome of acute limb ischemia, major amputation for vascular causes, MI, ischemic stroke, or cardiovascular death occurred less frequently with rivaroxaban.

Peripheral artery disease is a highly morbid type of atherosclerotic vascular disease involving the legs and is estimated to affect over 230 million individuals globally. Few therapies improve functional capacity and health-related quality of life in people with lower limb peripheral artery disease. We aimed to evaluate whether semaglutide improves function as measured by walking ability as well as symptoms, quality of life, and outcomes in people with peripheral artery disease and type 2 diabetes. STRIDE was a double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial done at 112 outpatient clinical trial sites in 20 countries in North America, Asia, and Europe. Participants were aged 18 years and older, with type 2 diabetes and peripheral artery disease with intermittent claudication (Fontaine stage IIa, able to walk >200 m) and an ankle–brachial index of less than or equal to 0·90 or toe–brachial index of less than or equal to 0·70. Participants were randomly assigned (1:1) using an interactive web response system to receive subcutaneous semaglutide 1·0 mg once per week for 52 weeks or placebo. The primary endpoint was the ratio to baseline of the maximum walking distance at week 52 measured on a constant load treadmill in the full analysis set. Safety was evaluated in the safety analysis set. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04560998 and is now completed. From Oct 1, 2020, to July 12, 2024, 1363 patients were screened for eligibility, of whom 792 were randomly assigned to semaglutide (n=396) or placebo (n=396). 195 (25%) participants were female and 597 (75%) were male. Median age was 68·0 years (IQR 61·0–73·0). The estimated median ratio to baseline in maximum walking distance at week 52 was significantly greater in the semaglutide group than the placebo group (1·21 [IQR 0·95–1·55] vs 1·08 [0·86–1·36]; estimated treatment ratio 1·13 [95% CI 1·06–1·21]; p=0·0004). Six serious adverse events in five (1%) participants in the semaglutide group and nine serious adverse events in six (2%) participants in the placebo group were possibly or probably treatment related, with the most frequent being serious gastrointestinal events (two events reports by two [1%] in the semaglutide group and five events reported by three [1%] in the placebo group). There were no treatment-related deaths. Semaglutide increased walking distance in patients with symptomatic peripheral artery disease and type 2 diabetes. Research implications include the need for future studies to further elucidate mechanisms of benefit and to assess the efficacy and safety in patients with peripheral artery disease who do not have type 2 diabetes. Novo Nordisk.

Patients with peripheral artery disease were randomly assigned to receive endovascular intervention with paclitaxel-coated or uncoated devices. In an unplanned interim analysis, there was no significant difference in all-cause mortality between the two groups.

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a heterogeneous disease that develops through diverse pathophysiological processes 1 , 2 and molecular mechanisms that are often specific to cell type 3 , 4 . Here, to characterize the genetic contribution to these processes across ancestry groups, we aggregate genome-wide association study data from 2,535,601 individuals (39.7% not of European ancestry), including 428,452 cases of T2D. We identify 1,289 independent association signals at genome-wide significance ( P  < 5 × 10 −8 ) that map to 611 loci, of which 145 loci are, to our knowledge, previously unreported. We define eight non-overlapping clusters of T2D signals that are characterized by distinct profiles of cardiometabolic trait associations. These clusters are differentially enriched for cell-type-specific regions of open chromatin, including pancreatic islets, adipocytes, endothelial cells and enteroendocrine cells. We build cluster-specific partitioned polygenic scores 5 in a further 279,552 individuals of diverse ancestry, including 30,288 cases of T2D, and test their association with T2D-related vascular outcomes. Cluster-specific partitioned polygenic scores are associated with coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease and end-stage diabetic nephropathy across ancestry groups, highlighting the importance of obesity-related processes in the development of vascular outcomes. Our findings show the value of integrating multi-ancestry genome-wide association study data with single-cell epigenomics to disentangle the aetiological heterogeneity that drives the development and progression of T2D. This might offer a route to optimize global access to genetically informed diabetes care. A meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of type 2 diabetes (T2D) identifies more than 600 T2D-associated loci; integrating physiological trait and single-cell chromatin accessibility data at these loci sheds light on heterogeneity within the T2D phenotype.

In this trial, patients with femoropopliteal artery disease were assigned to standard angioplasty or treatment with a paclitaxel-coated balloon. At 12 months, primary patency was seen more frequently with the drug-coated balloon than with standard angioplasty. Atherosclerotic disease in the femoral and popliteal (femoropopliteal) arteries compromises perfusion to the legs and feet. Although treatment with percutaneous transluminal angioplasty is effective in initially restoring blood flow, restenosis from vessel recoil and neointimal hyperplasia occur in more than 60% of patients within 1 year after the procedure. 1 Stents act as scaffolds to prevent recoil and reduce the incidence of restenosis, 2 – 9 but the permanent presence of an intravascular prosthesis may limit subsequent therapeutic options. Stent fracture, although infrequent, can have negative consequences. 10 – 13 Results with drug-eluting stents in peripheral vessels have varied, 14 – 18 although a recent study showed . . .

In patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD), we evaluated the effects of 12 months of walking exercise at a pace inducing ischemic leg symptoms (high intensity) on the attainment of meaningful improvement in patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and 6-minute walk, compared to walking exercise at a comfortable pace (low intensity) and a nonexercise control. Participants completed the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) to evaluate objective walking ability. PROMs included the Walking Impairment Questionnaire (WIQ) distance and speed scores (range 0 to 100, 100-best, minimal clinically important difference (MCID) = 15 and 11, respectively). 240 participants (61.7% Black, 48.3% female) participated. High intensity exercise increased 6MWT compared to control (+44.8 meters (95% CI:21.7,68.0) and compared to low-intensity exercise (+37.6 meters [95% CI:18.6,56.5]). Low intensity exercise had no significant benefit compared to control (+7.3 meters [95% CI:-16.3,30.9]). High intensity significantly increased attainment of the MCID for the 6MWT compared to low intensity (OR:2.43 [95% CI:1.35,4.38]) and compared to control (OR:5.22 [95% CI:2.32,11.76]). Compared to control, high intensity exercise significantly increased the odds of attaining an MCID for the WIQ distance score (OR:2.30 [95% CI:1.05,5.04]) and WIQ speed score (OR:2.94 [95% CI:1.27,6.83]). Compared to low intensity, high intensity did not significantly increase the odds of attaining an MCID for the WIQ distance (OR:0.93 [95% CI:0.53,1.66]) or the WIQ speed score (OR:1.31 [95% CI:0.71,2.43]). In conclusion, in people with PAD, high intensity walking exercise increased the odds of meaningful improvement in PROMs compared to control, but not compared to low-intensity exercise. Despite this, high intensity exercise improved 6MWT more than the low intensity exercise and nonexercise control groups (NCT02538900).