Feature Channels: Heart Disease

• share
• favorite_border

Patients who undergo the Fontan operation as children for a complex congenital heart defect are at risk of developing progressive liver fibrosis, a buildup of fibrous deposits, as a result of the circulation created by the surgery. A research team says their findings underscore the importance of improving ongoing medical surveillance, so that physicians can develop the most appropriate care for their patients.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study conducted by researchers from Tulane University finds reducing target systolic blood pressure below current recommendations significantly reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and preventable death.

• share
• favorite_border

For more than two months, Kim O’Neill, 61, spent nearly every night lying in bed, staring at the ceiling and wondering if she was going to die in her sleep. Her heart was beating so loudly in her chest she thought it might explode. During the day, she would struggle to walk up a flight of stairs to the second floor of her home and would run out of breath in the middle of a conversation with her husband. A typically active and positive person, O’Neill was terrified that this was her new normal. Everything changed in December 2016 when she met Ramesh Hariharan, M.D., a cardiac electrophysiologist with McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) and Memorial Hermann The Woodlands Hospital.

• share
• favorite_border

It may be possible to disrupt harmful blood clots in people at risk for heart attack or stroke without increasing their risk of bleeding, according to a new study published in Nature Communications.

• share
• favorite_border

Temple University Hospital has earned the Mission: Lifeline® Silver Receiving Quality Achievement Award for implementing specific quality improvement measures outlined by the American Heart Association for the treatment of patients who suffer severe heart attacks.

• share
• favorite_border

Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientist works to develop new treatments for wound healing and cancer.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers in Japan have identified a receptor protein on the surface of heart cells that promotes chronic heart failure. The study, “Corticotropin releasing hormone receptor 2 exacerbates chronic cardiac dysfunction,” which will be published May 26 in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, suggests that inhibiting this protein could help treat a disease that affects more than 20 million people worldwide.

• share
• favorite_border

The reduced-size Amplatzer duct occluder II (ADO II), a heart device developed to repair one of the most common congenital heart defects, is safe to use in very small children. That’s according to new research published in the May 2017 issue of Catheterization and Cardiovascular Intervention.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) today announced six boxes of fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) will travel to the International Space Station (ISS) to study the impact of weightlessness on the heart. The fruit flies are scheduled to launch on June 1, 2017, from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and will travel to the ISS via a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.

• share
• favorite_border

Thousands of critical care and pulmonology specialists from across the world gathered this week for the American Thoracic Society International Conference in Washington, D.C., to share research, medical developments and best practices for patient care. Here, we highlight a few standouts.

• share
• favorite_border

New Michigan State University research is the first to help a professional race car driver with diabetes improve his performance during competition, helping him capture two top-5 finishes at the Indianapolis 500.

• share
• favorite_border

Dr. Ming-Hui Zou, director of the Center for Molecular & Translational Medicine and a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Molecular Medicine, has renewed a four-year, $2.3 million federal grant to study the role of an enzyme in causing diabetic vascular diseases and the molecular mechanism that leads to these diseases.

• share
• favorite_border

Michigan Medicine researchers report a key protein is affected during heart valve formation, in the first genomewide study of bicuspid aortic valve.

• share
• favorite_border

A new strategy – an injectable antibody – for lowering blood lipids and thereby potentially preventing coronary artery disease and other conditions caused by the build-up of fats, cholesterol, and other substances on the artery walls, is supported by findings from two new studies from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

• share
• favorite_border

Two stressful work characteristics, low job control and “job strain” – that is, high-demand, low-control work – have been increasing in the U.S. since 2002. The findings may explain why declines in cardiovascular disease and related mortality have slowed. Researchers also found an increase in "work-family conflict."

• share
• favorite_border

Garret FitzGerald, MD, FRS, director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, has received a $1 million Merit Award from the American Heart Association (AHA) to help the millions of patients with high blood pressure improve their condition.

• share
• favorite_border

Chocolate consumption, particularly of dark chocolate, has been linked to improvements in various indicators of heart health. This study examined the possible association between chocolate intake and a lower rate of being diagnosed with atrial fibrillation. While this is an observational study, researchers believe these findings warrant further consideration to identify effective prevention strategies for atrial fibrillation.

• share
• favorite_border

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is proud to announce that Joseph Rossano, M.D., has been named Chief of the Division of Cardiology, effective this week.

• share
• favorite_border

In the first study examining dental records in the Rochester Epidemiology Project, results show that dentists and oral surgeons are in good compliance with guidelines issued by the American Heart Association (AHA) in 2007, describing prophylactic antibiotic use prior to invasive dental procedures.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has shown that aggressive lowering of blood pressure in people with hypertension reduced the risk of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). This condition, the enlargement and thickening of the walls of the heart’s main pumping chamber, is the most common complication of high blood pressure and greatly increases the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.