Mammograms can detect calcium in the breast’s arteries, a sign that the blood vessels are getting stiffer. New findings from a faculty member at Penn State College of Medicine revealed that the severity and progression of calcium accumulation seen on mammograms predicted future cardiovascular disease.

Concordia researchers found that AI can estimate a person’s age with up to ~96% accuracy using a 30-second ECG from a smartwatch, offering a privacy-respecting alternative to photo-based verification. The system works using only heart-signal patterns, reducing the need to store identifiable personal data.

A retrospective observational study found that valvular heart disease, detected by cardiovascular imaging, was common in patients with a previous cancer diagnosis. Interventions to treat valvular heart disease were infrequent; however, when performed, they significantly improved survival. These findings highlight the need to refer cancer patients for regular cardiovascular monitoring and also provide reassurance that interventions may be beneficial.

Long-term heart disease risk among women diagnosed with uterine fibroids was more than 80% higher than in women without uterine fibroids, according to a 10-year study of more than 2.7 million U.S. women.

A new study among more than 1,500 British adolescents is the first in the world to assess the association between familial cardiometabolic diseases and the offspring’s risk of premature heart damage by early adulthood. The study was conducted in collaboration between the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in the US, the Universities of Bristol and Exeter in the UK, and the University of Eastern Finland. The results were published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.