"Hello, My name is Dr. Ambarish Pandey, I'm a cardiologist at UT Southwestern Medical Centre in Dallas and we are here at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions meeting in Chicago where a lot of really interesting and important late breaking clinical trials have been presented. I will be talking about a few of them here.

Let's start with the study of semaglutide in patients with peripheral arterial disease, the STRIDE trial that was presented by the PI Dr. Mark Bonaca at a late breaking session yesterday. In this study the Investigators recruited around 800 patients with symptomatic peripheral arterial disease and type 2 diabetes who were treated with semaglutide and the semaglutide treatment was associated with a significant improvement in their quality of life and walking time and exercise ability. Highlighting the importance of GLP based treatment in management of patients with PAD. Extending the some of the key observations that have been made about semaglutide in other prior trials.

Another important study of semaglutide was the SOUL trial which was actually the first study to test cardiovascular outcome benefits of oral semaglutide in patients with type 2 diabetes. This trial was presented yesterday by Dr. Darren McGuire in a late breaking session and this study demonstrated a significant improvement in major adverse cardiovascular outcomes of myocardial infarction, stroke or death among patients with use of oral semaglutide, highlighting the value of even oral medications for weight loss like semaglutide for patients who may be more hesitant to take injectable therapies.

Another important trial in heart failure that was presented in late breaking session was the Fresh up trial which tested the dietary advice of liberal versus restrictive fluid intake among stable outpatients with chronic heart failure. And in this study the investigators demonstrated that there was no difference in quality of life among patients who were advised to have a restricted fluid intake versus a liberal fluid intake, challenging some of the notions that exist around restricting fluid intake among patients with heart failure.

Finally, I would like to end up with an important trial of iron supplementation in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. The FAIR HF2 study that was presented by Dr. Anker in a late breaking session as well and this study demonstrated that IV iron supplementation in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction with iron deficiency was not associated with improvement in risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes like heart failure, hospitalisation or mortality, but did lead to significant improvement in quality of life, adding further to the literature that exists on the importance of iron supplementation in particularly using IV iron, which in this case was ferric carboxymaltose in patients with heart failure a ejection fraction.”