Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2021 Update

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The American Heart Association, in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health, annually reports the most up-to-date statistics related to heart disease, stroke, and cardiovascular risk factors, including core health behaviors (smoking, physical activity, diet, and weight) and health factors (cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose control) that contribute to cardiovascular health. The Statistical Update presents the latest data on a range of major clinical heart and circulatory disease conditions (including stroke, congenital heart disease, rhythm disorders, subclinical atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, heart failure, valvular disease, venous disease, and peripheral artery disease) and the associated outcomes (including quality of care, procedures, and economic costs). METHODS: The American Heart Association, through its Statistics Committee, continuously monitors and evaluates sources of data on heart disease and stroke in the United States to provide the most current information available in the annual Statistical Update. The 2021 Statistical Update is the product of a full year’s worth of effort by dedicated volunteer clinicians and scientists, committed government professionals, and American Heart Association staff members. This year’s edition includes data on the monitoring and benefits of cardiovascular health in the population, an enhanced focus on social determinants of health, adverse pregnancy outcomes, vascular contributions to brain health, the global burden of cardiovascular disease, and further evidence-based approaches to changing behaviors related to cardiovascular disease. RESULTS: Each of the 27 chapters in the Statistical Update focuses on a different topic related to heart disease and stroke statistics. CONCLUSIONS: The Statistical Update represents a critical resource for the lay public, policy makers, media professionals, clinicians, health care administrators, researchers, health advocates, and others seeking the best available data on these factors and conditions.

Engineering Cardiovascular Tissue Chips for Disease Modeling and Drug Screening Applications

“…Myocardial infarction (MI) and reperfusion injury that often follows is the most common morbidity amongst CVDs (Virani et al, 2021). Using tissue chips that contain PDMS pillars, CMs were incorporated into hydrogel and undergoes compaction such that a myocardial construct forms around the pillars.…”

“…Heart failure is one of the most prominent CVDs (Virani et al, 2021) with limited strategies for surgical intervention (Bowen et al, 2020). To model heart failure using tissue chips, a gas chamber and a bioreactor were employed to recapitulate the mechanical cues of cardiac fibrosis using cardiac fibroblasts (Kong et al, 2019).…”

“…Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide (Virani Salim et al, 2020). In the United States alone, nearly half of the population is expected to have some kind of CVD by 2035 (Virani et al, 2021). Despite its prevalence, the number of new drugs aimed to treat CVD has been declining over the last decade (Van Norman, 2020).…”

Relative Importance of Heart Failure Events Compared to Stroke and Bleeding in AF Patients

“…Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia worldwide, and is associated with an increased risk of stroke and systemic embolism (IS/SE), heart failure (HF), myocardial infarction and subsequent mortality [1][2][3][4]. The current management of AF mainly relies on anticoagulation and AF risk factor management, which has importantly improved patients' prognosis, especially regarding the risk of IS/SE [2].…”

In situmaturated early-stage human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes improve cardiac function by enhancing segmentary contraction in infarcted rats

“…Cardiovascular diseases, in particular myocardial infarction (MI), are the leading cause of morbi-mortality worldwide [1,2]. The adult heart displays a limited regenerative capacity due to cardiomyocytes' scant proliferation ability [3,4].…”