Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for white and black Americans. Despite the presence of therapies that improve survival and quality of life in cardiac patients, African-Americans continue to have the worst heart disease survival rates of all racial groups. The literature has described racial disparities in cardiovascular care for at least 25 years. We review the current status of racial disparities in four areas of cardiovascular care: automatic implantable cardioverterdefibrillator (AICD) implantations in patients at risk for sudden cardiac death, cardiac resynchronization therapy with defibrillator (CRT-D) implantation in patients with severely depressed left ventricular function and refractory heart failure, reperfusion therapy in patients presenting with acute myocardial infarction, and revascularization in patients with critical limb ischemia. We will discuss potential culprits for these disparities with a particular focus on hospital quality, physician bias, and the relative lack of diversity among cardiovascular physicians in the USA. Finally, we will discuss strategies already in progress that hold promise to reduce or eliminate racial disparities in cardiovascular care.

In patients with heavily calcified coronary lesions, there was no association between angiographic stenosis and hemodynamic significance and FFR is needed to determine hemodynamic significance of intermediate lesions. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Strategies to prevent or attenuate cardiotoxicities include limitation of anthracycline dose, appropriate patient selection, referral/access to cardio-oncology programs, early recognition of cardiac side effects, active cardio-surveillance, cardio-protective medical therapy, treatment-specific concerns, and follow-up. The importance of accurate diagnosis of cardiotoxicity is important as false-positive testing may result in inappropriate holding or stopping potentially life-saving chemotherapy. Data to support use of cardio-protective medical therapy to prevent chemotherapy-related cardiotoxicity is modest at best, limited by marginal effect size, small patient numbers, and short follow-up. The rapid growth in cardio-oncology clinics may facilitate larger multi-center randomized controlled trials in this area.

Habitual moderate intensity exercise is a vital component of a healthy lifestyle. For most of the population, increasing exercise duration and intensity beyond current recommendations appears to impart additional cardiovascular benefits; however, recent data has raised the possibility of an inflection point after which additional exercise no longer imparts benefit and may even result in negative cardiovascular outcomes. Exercise at the extremes of human endurance places a large hemodynamic stress on the heart and results in occasionally profound cardiac remodeling in order to accommodate the huge increases in cardiac output demanded by such endeavors. These changes have the potential to become maladaptive and heighten the risk of various arrhythmias, influence the rate of coronary atherosclerosis, and alter the risk of sudden cardiac death. Herein, we will discuss the potential negative impact of extreme exercise on cardiovascular risk.

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