More than half of medical journal editorials commenting on randomised controlled trials of invasive cardiovascular interventions have a link with the trial sponsor, a study shows.

The analysis of 82 commentaries on 79 trials published during a period of more than six years found 46 (56%) had at least one author with a declared financial conflict of interest.

In addition, many authors receiving general payments or research funding from industry during the year of publication or the prior two calendar years failed to disclose the ties, the study team reports in JAMA Internal Medicine.

“Commentators on these randomised controlled clinical trials were not always forthcoming about their conflicts of interest,” said senior author, Professor Arnar Geirsson, chief of cardiac surgery at the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.