Meeting up at the British Cardiovascular Society Conference, Philip MacCarthy (a cardiology consultant in London) talks to Alec Vahanian (professor of cardiology, Hôpital Bichat, Paris) about mitral regurgitation, including the importance of 3D echocardiography and how to categorise the disorder.

They also discuss who needs intervention and what this should be, and the emerging percutaneous options.

See also:

Webcasts from all the sessions at the British Cardiovascular Society Conference 2012http://bit.ly/ZMGmUE

In this podcast, Alistair Lindsay talks to Jennifer Logue about the link between obesity and heart disease.

Increasing weight is associated with a higher prevalence of known risk factors for coronary artery disease, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol. And it has been assumed that these have been responsible for the increased risk of heart disease seen in obesity, say the authors. But now research published in Heart suggests that obesity is a killer in its own right, irrespective of other biological or social risk factors traditionally associated with coronary heart disease.

Read the article online: http://heart.bmj.com/content/early/2011/01/24/hrt.2010.211201

Alistair Lindsay talks to Maarten Leening (Erasmus MC, The Netherlands) about his research into the risk of heart failure following undiagnosed myocardial infarctions in elderly people.

See also;

Unrecognised myocardial infarction and long-term risk of heart failure in the elderly: the Rotterdam Study http://bit.ly/11z3tGg

Alistair Lindsay talks to Declan O’Regan about assessing reperfusion injury using cardiac MRI in patients with acute MI.

See also;

Assessment of severe reperfusion injury with T2* cardiac MRI in patients with acute myocardial infarction http://bit.ly/14MsaUf

Alistair Lindsay talks to Leong Ng about his work into using biomarkers to identify which groups of patients will benefit from ACE inhibition after acute coronary syndrome.

See also:

Identification of potential outcome benefit from ACE inhibition after acute coronary syndrome: a biomarker approach using N-terminal proBNP http://bit.ly/11hAfKc

In this first edition of the BMJ Heart podcast, Alistair Lindsay talks to Peter Bramlage about his paper on how and when patients are treated after acute myocardial infarction, and the effect optical medical therapy can have on one year mortality.

See also:

The effect of optimal medical therapy on 1-year mortality after acute myocardial infarction http://bit.ly/Y1KOoj