The practice of cardiology by recent guidelines 1 includes assessment and management of cardiovascular risk with lifestyle first, followed by medications when lifestyle changes do not produce sufficient results or high risk is present. However, in clinical practice, the assessment of diet and exercise followed by meaningful intervention in these areas are not often emphasized by physicians, and implementation by patients is often lessthan optimal. In this case, there was a dramatic improvement in cardiovascular risk factors, including a profound degree of weight loss, along with a fall in systolic pressure, serum triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and total cholesterol, possibly driven by the improvement in the microbiome induced by the patient’s exercise and dietary change to a whole food, plant-based diet. These remarkable changes represent an unusual response in terms of the degree, but not the direction, of improvement with exercise and a plant-based diet. The patient’s prospects of sustained weight loss and lifelong lower cardiovascular risk appear to be best with his adopted lifestyle changes, particularly the whole food, plant-based diet.

Introduction: Aortic stenosis (AS) is the most common valvular disease, and severe disease can significantly impact morbidity. Less data exists examining the functional and quality of life (QOL) effects of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in patients with severe low-gradient AS in both low-flow and normal-flow states. Hypothesis: Patients with symptomatic, severe, low-gradient AS would have improvements in functional and QOL outcomes at 30-days and 1-year following TAVR procedures. Methods: A single center, retrospective study examined symptomatic, severe, low-gradient AS variants. These had an aortic valve area of ≤1.0 cm 2 , mean transvalvular gradient <40 mmHg, and peak aortic valve velocity of <4 m/s. Classical low-flow low-gradient (CLFLG) AS was defined as a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) <50%. CLFLG group underwent dobutamine stress echo to assess AS severity (Stage D2). Paradoxical low-flow low-gradient (PLFLG) AS was defined as LVEF ≥50% and a stroke volume index (SVi) ≤35mL/m 2 (Stage D3). Normal-flow low-gradient (NFLG) AS was defined as LVEF ≥50% and SVi >35mL/m 2 (Stage D4). The primary outcome was change in New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification and a 12-item Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire overall score (KCCQ-OS) at 30-days and 1-year following TAVR. Results: A total of 191 patients were included for analysis: 46 CLFLG, 83 PLFLG, and 62 NFLG AS. At baseline, 130 (68%) had NYHA class III or IV symptoms. Mean baseline KCCQ-OS for all groups was 38±23 (Figure 1). The mean KCCQ-OS at 30-days and 1 year were 62±22 and 68±20. There were no significant differences in KCCQ-OS between the groups at 30-days and 1-year. Following TAVR, 92% and 88% of the cohort had NYHA class I or II symptoms at 30-days and 1 year. Conclusions: Patients with symptomatic, severe low-gradient AS had significant and sustained improvements in their functional and QOL metrics at 30-days and 1-year following TAVR procedures regardless of flow-state.

Introduction: Sex differences in COVID-19 outcomes are well-known and have been ascribed to numerous factors including age-dependent sex hormones. We hypothesize that the protective effect of female sex in hospitalized COVID-19 patients attenuates with age. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed patients who were hospitalized for COVID-19 infection at three hospitals of the Rush University System for Health (RUSH) (Chicago, IL) between March to December 2020. The primary endpoints were in-hospital mortality and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), defined as a composite of acute myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest, acute heart failure, and stroke. Stratified logistic regression was performed to estimate the odds ratios of these endpoints in male compared to female patients by age group (<45, 45-55, 55-65, 65-75, and ≥75 years). Results: Of 1705 patients (age 58.1±16.9 years, 54.3% male, 24.6% White) who were hospitalized for COVID-19 infection, 179 (10.5%) patients experienced in-hospital mortality and 290 (17.0%) patients experienced MACE, respectively. The incidence of these outcomes progressively increased with age in both sexes. In patients <45 years of age, there was a trend towards increased risk for in-hospital mortality (aOR 4.47; 95% CI: 0.54 - 42.38) and MACE (aOR 2.43; 95% CI: 0.97 - 6.10) in men compared to women. However, this trend attenuated with increasing age strata and there was a slight decrease in risk for in-hospital mortality (aOR 0.79; 95% CI: 0.39 - 1.58) and MACE (aOR 0.70; 95% CI: 0.38 - 1.28) among middle-aged (55-65 years of age) men compared to women. Conclusions: In this multi-hospital registry of COVID-19 patients, there was a reverse J-shaped trend in odds of in-hospital mortality and MACE in men compared to women. Female sex appeared to be an independent protective factor for adverse hospital outcomes among patients <55 years of age but not among older patients, suggesting a protective role of premenopausal sex hormones.

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