The association between the dissemination of scientific articles on Twitter and online visibility (as assessed by the Altmetric Score) is still controversial, and the impact on citation rates has never been rigorously addressed for cardiovascular medicine journals using a randomized design. The ESC Journals Study randomized 695 papers published in the ESC Journal Family (March 2018–May 2019) for promotion on Twitter or to a control arm (with no active tweeting from ESC channels) and aimed to assess whether Twitter promotion was associated with an increase in citation rates (primary endpoint) and of the Altmetric Score. This is the final analysis including 694 articles (one paper excluded due to retraction). After a median follow-up of 994 days (interquartile range: 936–1063 days), Twitter promotion of articles was associated with a 1.12 (95% confidence interval: 1.08–1.15) higher rate of citations, and this effect was independent of the type of article. Altmetric Attention Score and number of users tweeting were positive predictors for the number of citations. A social media strategy of Twitter promotion for cardiovascular medicine papers seems to be associated with increased online visibility and higher numbers of citations.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has changed how we view our consultations. To reduce the risk of spread in the most vulnerable patients (those with heart disease) and health personnel, most face-to-face consultations have been replaced by telemedicine consultations. Although this change has been rapidly introduced, it will most likely become a permanent feature of clinical practice. Nevertheless, there remain serious doubts about organizational and legal issues, as well as the possibilities for improvement etc. In this consensus document of the Spanish Society of Cardiology, we attempt to provide some keys to improve the quality of care in this new way of working, reviewing the most frequent heart diseases attended in the cardiology outpatient clinic and proposing some minimal conditions for this health care process. These heart diseases are ischemic heart disease, heart failure, and arrhythmias. In these 3 scenarios, we attempt to clarify the basic issues that must be checked during the telephone interview, describe the patients who should attend in person, and identify the criteria to refer patients for follow-up in primary care. This document also describes some improvements that can be introduced in telemedicine consultations to improve patient care.

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Amyloidosis is an infiltrative disease caused by extracellular protein deposition that has accumulated a lot of scientific production in recent years. Different types of amyloidosis can affect the heart. Transthyretin amyloidosis and light chain amyloidosis are the two most common types of cardiac amyloidosis. These entities have a poor prognosis, so accurate diagnostic techniques are imperative for determining an early therapeutic approach. Recent advances in cardiac imaging and diagnostic strategies show that these tools are safe and can avoid the use of invasive diagnostic techniques to histological confirmation, such as endomyocardial biopsy. We performed a review on the diagnostic and prognostic implications of different cardiac imaging techniques in cardiac amyloidosis. We mainly focus on reviewing echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance, computed tomography and nuclear imaging techniques and the different safety measurements that can be done with each of them.

Social media increasingly impact both the private and professional lives of the majority of the population, including individuals engaged in cardiovascular healthcare and research. Healthcare providers across the world use social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook to find medical and scientific information, to follow scientific meetings, to discuss individual clinical cases with colleagues, and to engage with patients. While social media provide a means for fast, interactive and accessible communication without geographic boundaries, their use to obtain and disseminate information has limitations and the potential threats are not always clearly understood. Governance concerns include a lack of rigorous quality control, bias due to the pre-selection of presented content by filter algorithms, and the risk of inadvertent breach of patient confidentiality. This article provides information and guidance regarding the role and use of social media platforms in cardiovascular medicine, with an emphasis on the new opportunities for the dissemination of scientific information and continuing education that arise from their responsible use.

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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is known to present with respiratory symptoms, which can lead to severe pneumonia and respiratory failure. However, it can have multisystem complications such as cardiovascular manifestations. The cardiovascular manifestations reported comprise myocarditis, cardiogenic shock, arrhythmias, pulmonary embolism, deep vein embolism, acute heart failure, and myocardial infarction. There is also an indirect impact of the pandemic on the management of cardiovascular care that has been shown clearly in multiple publications. In this review, we summarize the deadly relation of COVID-19 with cardiovascular events and the wider impact on several cardiovascular care areas by the pandemic situation