Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have developed a new gene therapy that is safe and effective in reversing advanced heart failure. SERCA2a is a gene therapy designed to stimulate production of an enzyme that enables the failing heart to pump more effectively.
In the largest study to date evaluating erectile dysfunction (ED) and coronary artery calcification, researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have determined that men with ED are at a significantly increased risk of high coronary artery calcification scores (CACS), a known predictor of future cardiovascular events. The research was presented this week at the American Urological Association (AUA) meeting in San Francisco.
Pediatric researchers report that a recently introduced surgical procedure offers infants with severely underdeveloped hearts a better chance at surviving during their first year of life, in comparison to the standard surgery.
Although congenital heart disease represents the most common major birth defect, scientists have not previously identified the common variation in the genes that give rise to it. Now genetics and cardiology researchers, two of them brothers, have discovered a genetic variant on chromosome 5 that strongly raises the risk of congenital heart disease.
A trial on shunts used to direct blood flow to the lungs, led by researchers at the University of Michigan, will lead to better outcomes for kids worldwide born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, the most common severe heart birth defect. The results of this groundbreaking study are published in the May 27, 2010 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Infants born with complex congenital heart disease are not only at risk for serious heart-related complications, but also for developing a deadly bowel disease, regardless of the type of surgical intervention they receive for their heart. These are the findings from a study by Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and appearing in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine published online May 6 ahead of print.
Gene therapy has been shown to have positive effects in rat models of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), according to researchers at the University of Adelaide in Australia.
Research suggests that stress can take its toll on even the toughest first responders. Loyola University Health System is taking steps to protect firefighters and paramedics who risk their lives and perform other heroic measures to help those in need. The organization will offer heart health-risk assessments and screenings to its network of more than 3,000 emergency medical services (EMS) providers. This is part of Loyola’s efforts to celebrate its 35th anniversary as an emergency medical services resource hospital.
Researchers studying the common genetic disorder chromosome 22q.11 deletion syndrome have identified key proteins that act together to regulate early embryonic development. One protein is essential to life; in animal studies, embryos without the protein do not survive past the first few days of gestation.
Drug-releasing stents are more effective than bare metal stents at keeping a blocked artery open after angioplasty, but the difference does not result in fewer deaths or subsequent heart attacks after the procedure.
Johns Hopkins cardiac surgeons — none who are involved in the care of ABC ‘s Barbara Walters — are prepared to give background to reporters or comment on diseased aortic valves and aortic valve replacement surgery, performed at a rate of more than one a week at Johns Hopkins for many years.
From 1994 to 2005 in Ontario, Canada, there was a 35 percent decrease in the rate of deaths from coronary heart disease (CHD), with about half of this reduction associated with improvements in traditional CHD risk factors such as total cholesterol levels and systolic blood pressure, according to a study in the May 12 issue of JAMA.
Use of a score based on the amount of calcium in coronary arteries in addition to traditional risk factors improved the classification of risk for prediction of coronary heart disease events, and placed more individuals in the most extreme risk categories, according to a study in the April 28 issue of JAMA.
Scientists at the University of Michigan Health System are teasing out clues to the effect of grapes in reducing risk factors related to cardiovascular disease and metabolic syndrome. The effect is thought to be due to phytochemicals -- naturally occurring antioxidants – that grapes contain.
Consuming carbohydrates with high glycemic index—an indicator of how quickly a food affects blood glucose levels—appears to be associated with the risk of coronary heart disease in women but not men, according to a report in the April 12 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
The Mount Sinai Medical Center has become the first in the United States to commercially use a new cardiac nuclear imaging system by GE Healthcare, a cadmium zinc telluride (CZT)-based high-speed, high-resolution camera that drastically reduces imaging time for patients while also reducing radiation exposure compared to previously used technologies.
Researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute have found in animals that infusing cardiac-derived stem cells with micro-size particles of iron and then using a magnet to guide those stem cells to the area of the heart damaged in a heart attack boosts the heart’s retention of those cells and could increase the therapeutic benefit of stem cell therapy for heart disease.
University of Utah Hospital is the second center in the country to implant a patient with a Utah-made Ventricular Assist Device (VAD).
New research shows that doing a simple ultrasound scan of the carotid artery significantly improves the prediction of heart disease, giving doctors a better clue of who is at high risk for a heart attack. Results are published online today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC).
Studying Drosophila (fruit flies), an international team investigated 7061 genes and built a detailed map that shows how a portion of these genes contribute to heart function and disease. Importantly, the researchers identified many genes that had not previously been associated with heart disease.
Once care for people with heart disease has reached a certain level, making improvements -- and reaching those last few patients -- increasingly becomes difficult, suggests a new review.
Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine are presenting more than 20 ground-breaking studies at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) 59th annual scientific session (ACC.10) in Atlanta. Their research includes data showing that the World Trade Center (WTC) collapse has caused potentially dangerous heart problems in responders on-site.
Salsalate, an anti-inflammatory agent, shows encouraging results in preliminary trial led by Joslin Diabetes Center.
A new study suggests that a gene called HuR plays a critical role in inducing and mediating an inflammatory response in cells experiencing mechanical and chemical stresses. The finding may lead to new treatments for diseases associated with inflammation, such as atherosclerosis.
Body size, gender and the complexity of heart disease significantly influence how much cumulative radiation skin dose that patients receive during percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) therapy, also known as angioplasty, according to a new Mayo Clinic study. The study was undertaken as a quality control initiative to reduce the potential radiation risks of cancer to patients and PCI operators.
A team of Mayo Clinic researchers have found that cardiac rehabilitation is associated with significantly reduced mortality rates for patients who have had stents placed to treat blockages in their coronary arteries. The findings, presented today at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Atlanta, found that patients who had coronary angioplasty (stent placement, also known as percutaneous coronary intervention) and afterwards participated in a cardiac rehabilitation program had a 45 to 47 percent decrease in mortality compared to those who did not participate in a cardiac rehabilitation program.
A new drug, eprotirome, has been shown to significantly lower bad cholesterol, triglycerides and Lp(A), without the side effects that statins cause in many people.
Current drugs used to treat heart failure and irregular heartbeat have limited effectiveness and have side effects. New basic science findings suggest a way that treatments could potentially be refined so that they work better and target only key heart-related mechanisms.
Geisinger Health System and Yale School of Medicine investigators are researching how young people recover from heart attacks through VIRGO (Variation in Recovery: Role of Gender on Outcomes in Young AMI Patients), a research project funded by the National, Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
Under a $7.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, Rush University Medical Center is developing a novel program, called WISHFIT, to help pre-menopausal women reduce visceral fat through a sustained increase in physical activity and reduction in stress. The program will be designed by both Rush researchers and women in two Southside Chicago communities.
New Saint Louis University research found that beta blockers are underused in heart failure patients who receive an implantable cardiac device, suggesting a reliance on technology rather than conventional drug therapy.
A study by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers found that obese children as young as 3 years old have elevated levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation that in adults is considered an early warning sign for possible future heart disease.
Low doses of the medication lasofoxifene can reduce the risk of vertebral and non-vertebral fractures, ER-positive breast cancer, coronary heart disease and stroke in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. That’s the finding of a new study in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Agricultural Research Service (ARS)-funded scientists have reported new reasons for choosing “heart-healthy” oats at the grocery store.
New research from UAB suggests that the ability of right side of the heart to pump blood may be an indication of the risk of death to heart-failure patients whose condition is caused by low function by the left side of their heart. The ability of the two chambers of the heart, the left and right ventricles, to pump blood is described as ejection fraction. Healthy individuals typically have ejection fractions between 50 and 65 percent in both chambers. UAB researchers say that low right-ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) increased the risk of death in patients with systolic heart failure — heart failure associated with low left-ventricular ejection fraction.
Brian H. Annex, M.D., chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine in the Department of Medicine at the University of Virginia Health System, is available to speak about Clinton’s procedure and the signs and symptoms of heart disease that should not be ignored. Annex's clinical and research areas include a focus on peripheral arterial disease (PAD) where blockages in arteries cause illness and ongoing problems.
For women concerned about heart disease, routine testing of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) is controversial, says Thomas Behrenbeck, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic cardiologist.
People with migraine may be at an increased risk of heart attack and other risk factors for heart disease, according to a study published in the February 10, 2010, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The FDA approved the first study of neurostimulation as a treatment for heart failure, a chronic disease that affects nearly six million Americans and is the leading cause of hospitalization in America.
Dr. Karla Kurrelmeyer, a female cardiologist who focuses on women with heart disease, reveals tips and advice that she shares with her patients year round.
The risk for heart-related death is increasing in young adults ages 35 to 54, and the numbers are even more alarming for younger women. It is the number-one cause of death for both men and women in the United States, yet every year since 1984 more women have died of cardiovascular health problems than men, according to the American Heart Association.
Treating a common heart rhythm disorder by burning heart tissue with a catheter works dramatically better than drug treatments, according to a landmark study published in the Jan. 27 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Use of catheter ablation, in which radiofrequency energy is emitted from a catheter to eliminate the source of an irregular heartbeat, resulted in significantly better outcomes in patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (intermittent cardiac rhythm disturbance) who had not responded previously to antiarrhythmic drug therapy, according to a study in the January 27 issue of JAMA.
The same evolutionary genetic advantages that have helped increase human lifespans also make us uniquely susceptible to diseases of aging such as cancer, heart disease and dementia, reveals a study to be published in a special PNAS collection on "Evolution in Health and Medicine."
Virginia Tech researcher Pavlos Vlachos and his students in the College of Engineering have a tall order to tackle: Stem the grim progression of heart disease. Projects include better understanding the flow of blood in and out of the heart; improving artery stents; and creating a system that can mimic the sounds of a diseased heart in order to develop sensors that can form a diagnosis.
World-leading cardiovascular specialists, researchers, family physicians and the public will learn what’s new in cardiovascular treatment, patient care and research at the second annual Peter Munk Cardiovascular Symposium, Partnerships in Integrative Patient Care, on January 29 and 30 at the Toronto Metropolitan Hotel.
I am 52 years old with no history of heart disease. I survived a heart attack and had six stents placed in my heart at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore. People would say, myself included, that this couldn't be true because I was active, fit and tried to set a good example for those around me.
Chronic stress following Hurricane Katrina contributed to a three-fold increase in heart attacks in New Orleans more than two years after levee breaches flooded most of the city, according to researchers at Tulane University School of Medicine.
Heart disease can affect almost every aspect of life- from a change in sleeping habits to the fight against diabetes to many things in between. The following is a tip sheet from the experts at LifeBridge Health in Baltimore, Maryland to start discussions about heart health.
Coronary heart disease costs the health care system more than $475 billion annually. Cardiac rehabilitation programs, which teach heart attack and bypass patients how to make lifestyle changes including exercise and diet, yield measurable outcomes at a low cost, but lack appeal of flashy stents.
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