The drug tirzepatide improved kidney function and cardiovascular outcomes among patients with obesity and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) compared with placebo at one year, according to featured clinical research presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session (ACC.25) and simultaneously published in JACC. The overall rate of cardiovascular death or worsening heart failure, the trial’s primary endpoint, was higher in the 60% of study participants who also had chronic kidney disease. However, tirzepatide reduced the risk of the primary endpoint to a similar degree in patients with and without kidney disease.

People breathing contaminated air over the course of years are at greater risk of developing numerous diseases. This is thought to be due to highly reactive components in particulate matter, which affect biological processes in the body. However, researchers from the University of Basel, Switzerland, have now shown that precisely these components disappear within hours and that previous measurements therefore completely underestimate the quantities in which they are present.

Researchers have developed a virtual reality-based system that shows promise in improving the differentiation between common mental health conditions, potentially paving the way for earlier and more personalised treatment. The work is published in the March edition of the peer-reviewed journal European Neuropsychopharmacology, with a subsequent (31 March) comment also being published in the same journal.

AI mental health apps may offer a cheap and accessible way to fill the gaps in the overstretched U.S. mental health care system, but ethics experts warn that we need to be thoughtful about how we use them, especially with children.

A research team funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) uncovered higher rates of heart disease and worse heart health affecting adults living in rural communities compared to urban areas and the factors that likely drive these differences.  

Neurologists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio are among the nation's first to use new technology to treat patients with movement disorders with deep brain stimulation that automatically adapts as symptoms change.