Cardiology evidence with the caveats intact.
This Week in Cardiology turns recent trials, guidelines, and listener feedback into pointed clinical interpretation. John Mandrola moves quickly from study design to bedside consequence, with special attention to where enthusiasm outruns evidence.
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This Week in Cardiology is a clinician-facing review of current cardiology evidence, framed less as news delivery than as weekly clinical reasoning. John Mandrola speaks from theheart.org and Medscape Cardiology, moving through trials, guidelines, conference presentations, and listener corrections with a brisk, skeptical cadence. The show is dense. It is also practical, because the discussion rarely stops at what a paper reported. It asks what the result means for actual care, what the trial design can and cannot prove, and where cardiologists may be importing too much certainty into daily practice. Recent episodes have covered SpiritHF and spironolactone in HFpEF, imaging-guided PCI trials, LDL targets, oral PCSK9 therapy, beta-blocker withdrawal, aortic stenosis, left atrial appendage closure, AF ablation, loop recorder accuracy, GLP-1 drugs, and direct oral anticoagulant comparisons. Conference energy gets special scrutiny. A jubilant presentation or a phrase like a new era in PE care becomes the start of a closer look rather than a finish line. That skeptical posture is the show's signature. It is not contrarian for sport; it is a habit of checking endpoints, patient selection, absolute effects, follow-up, power, sponsorship, and applicability before changing practice. The pace can be demanding. Acronyms arrive quickly, and the intended audience is clearly made up of healthcare professionals who already understand the clinical landscape. Still, the editorial throughline is accessible to clinicians outside a narrow subspecialty, because the show regularly translates trial mechanics into broader lessons about evidence. Listener feedback gives the series another useful layer. Corrections about anticoagulant lead-in dosing, questions about statin preferences, and comments from clinicians become material for refining the argument. The tone is measured, but blunt when warranted. Mandrola is comfortable saying a study is underpowered, a comparison is asymmetric, a trial may be biased, or a common assumption has not earned the confidence placed in it. That makes the show valuable for cardiology professionals who want to keep up without outsourcing judgment to abstracts, guidelines, or conference applause. It is best heard by people who enjoy the space between data and decision.
Made for: Designed for health professionals, especially clinicians who follow cardiology trials, guidelines, and practice debates. It fits listeners who are comfortable with technical detail and want clear judgment after the data are laid out.
What sets it apart: The show stands out for its trial-first discipline: endpoints, populations, limitations, and clinical implications come before enthusiasm. Listener feedback and conference observations are folded into a weekly evidence argument rather than treated as side notes.
This podcast delivers Dr. John Mandrola's summary and perspective on top news of the week that cardiologists can't miss. This podcast is intended for US health professionals only.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
John Mandrola makes cardiology evidence legible by testing trial results against clinical importance, safety, and the limits of extrapolation.
John Mandrola turns cardiology news into a running exercise in clinical judgment. He moves from trial results to study design, effect size, safety signals, and the limits of extrapolation, showing how evidence changes once it reaches an actual treatment decision.
John Mandrola turns confidence intervals into a stress test for your favorite cardiology conclusion.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A skeptical cardiology review of anticoagulant dosing, extrapolation, and evidence that does not settle as neatly as it first appears.
This Week in Cardiology works through familiar cardiology choices with a skeptical, practice-minded eye, moving from beta blockers in non-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy to smartwatch accuracy for atrial fibrillation.
A brisk cardiology review that weighs AF ablation claims against trial results and quality-of-life realities.
Cardiology's hardest questions often show up as everyday decisions, and this episode stays focused on the distance between what a treatment might change and what the evidence can actually show.
A skeptical cardiology review connecting CPR and DNR questions with oral GLP-1 evidence and PFA-AF caution.
This Week in Cardiology takes a skeptical, editorial pass through a busy cardiology week, starting with a listener note from New Zealand on CPR and DNR orders and the uneasy space between patient wishes, best medical care, and hemodynamic collapse.
A brisk cardiology review that tempers low-risk TAVI enthusiasm with longer-term stroke and mortality signals.
Longer-term valve data give this edition its point. John Mandrola returns to the six-year Evolute Low-Risk TAVI trial, setting the original 1,468-patient comparison of a self-expanding Medtronic TAVI valve with surgical AVR in severe AS alongside newer five-year evidence.
A brisk, skeptical cardiology review of exercise evidence, AI ECGs, GLP-1 comparisons, and untested policy.
This Week in Cardiology works through a familiar set of cardiovascular debates with a skeptical, clinician-facing eye: exercise research, the limits of observational step-count data, AI-assisted ECG reading, GLP-1 comparisons, and policy harms in U.S. veterans.
A year-end cardiology review that weighs extra ablation work against real clinical value.
This Week in Cardiology's December 20, 2024 episode uses a year-end review to ask how new cardiology techniques should earn their place. PROMPT-AF gives it the sharpest test case: adding alcohol infusion of the vein of Marshall to linear ablation led to 71% freedom from AF at…
Emergency evidence, tested against resus practice.
Plain-spoken health talk with a metabolic edge.
Practical anesthesia safety, one case at a time.
Surgery, mentorship, and life in training.
John Mandrola's August 1, 2025 This Week in Cardiology covers exercise evidence, finerenone, Queen of Hearts ECG AI, tirzepatide versus dulaglutide, end-of-life choices, and the VA Mission Act.
John Mandrola discusses listener feedback, GLP-1 use in heart failure, left atrial posterior wall isolation, peri-device leaks, post-cardiac surgery AFib, and imaging before AF ablation.
John Mandrola previews four key studies from the European Society of Cardiology meeting, including trials on beta blockers after MI, ATTR cardiomyopathy therapy, RAS inhibitors before surgery, and HFpEF meta-analysis.
John Mandrola reviews key cardiology trials from ACC and ERA, including WARRIOR, PROTECT-TAVI, DAPA-TAVI, and SOUL, and shares his experience at the European Heart Rhythm meeting.
John Mandrola discusses the Prevent Score for hypertension, GLP-1 mechanism in CVD, coronary artery disease type and statin benefit, and heart failure hospitalizations as an endpoint.
John Mandrola discusses longer-term TAVI data, a provocative meta-analysis, DNR, targeted hypothermia, HFPEF evidence, GLP-1 agents for AFib, and chest pain evaluation.
In Denmark, CCTA as a first-line test led to a 33% decline in invasive catheterization, challenging American overuse.
John Mandrola calls POET2 'one of the most erroneous trial interpretations I have seen,' because tailored antibiotic therapy gave 183 versus 169 days alive without antibiotics but relapse of 5.1% versus 1.6%.
John Mandrola discusses recent cardiology trials including SpiritHF, olazarsin imaging study, SIRPAD, and Ulysses.
John Mandrola discusses three imaging-guided PCI trials, LDL targets, an oral PSK9 inhibitor, and a beta-blocker withdrawal trial in this week's cardiology news roundup.
John Mandrola reviews five major cardiology trials from ACC 2026, starting with a critical look at the HiPetho trial on interventional PE treatment.
John Mandrola discusses long-term follow-up of early aortic valve replacement for aortic stenosis, left atrial appendage occlusion in JAMA Cardiology, and a preview of the ACC conference.
John Mandrola discusses listener feedback on DOACs, the CLOSURE-AF trial, a preview of CHAMPION-AF, and the controversial ACC-AHA lipid guidelines.
Bisoprolol cut peak oxygen consumption below verapamil and placebo in 32 non-obstructive HCM patients.
Urgent AF ablation in hospitalized patients had a 4.9% complication rate versus 2.4% with elective ablation.
John Mandrola discusses a JAMA Internal Medicine statin-preference study from the University of Tokyo, a Japanese registry on left atrial appendage closure, and new data on Lilly’s oral GLP-1 orforglipron.
John Mandrola reviews six- and seven-year Evolute Low-Risk TAVI results, including 9.8% versus 6.0% re-intervention and 27.7% versus 23.9% mortality for TAVI versus SAVR.