Newswise — (Salt Lake City) One in five of us will be diagnosed with heart failure during our lifetime, a condition in which the heart fails to pump normally. A staggering 50 percent of these patients will die within five years, a prognosis that is worse than most cancers. Yet, significant research advances and new therapies, including small mechanical pumps and stem cell treatments, are generating hope that this deadly disease can be defeated.
On Jan. 14-15, leading scientists and clinicians from across the globe will come to the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City for the Utah Cardiac Recovery Symposium (U-CARS). Now in its fourth year, the one-of-a-kind conference has been described as a “think tank” where hundreds of cardiologists, surgeons, radiologists, anesthesiologists, ER physicians, nurses, pharmacists, research scientists and more converge to push forward the field of heart recovery.
Media are invited to attend U-CARS and gain an insider’s view into the future of health care as international experts in heart recovery medicine present and debate breaking developments and how they impact medical care. Get in touch with the U-CARS media contact at [email protected] for free registration details. The complete agenda can be found at ucarsuofumedicine.org.
Symposium co-organizer Stavros Drakos, M.D., U of U associate professor of cardiology, says U-CARS is a unique opportunity for clinicians and scientists to exchange ideas, debate paradigms and share information to improve the lives of people worldwide. “We advance knowledge and reduce the devastating toll of this disease, and that’s what we hope this conference helps achieve.”
Symposium highlights include breaking research:
Jim Maly, M.D., Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Prague, Czech RepublicMaly will announce the first-in-man results of a novel miniature heart pump (percutaneous ventricular assist device-pVAD) that helps people survive after massive heart attacks by facilitating recovery of the injured heart.Stavros Drakos, M.D., University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, UtahInvestigators from the Utah Cardiac Recovery Program will present unpublished research suggesting that defective metabolism–how cells make energy from fuel such as sugar and fat–may be a major contributor to heart disease. They find that interventions that enhance the heart’s metabolism significantly improve cardiac function in patients with end-stage heart failure.
Featured speakers:Jeroen Bax, M.D., Leiden University Medical Center, The NetherlandsPresident-Elect, European Society of CardiologyA world-renowned pioneer in advanced imaging of the heart and vessels, Dr. Bax will discuss the state of knowledge of revascularization and heart recovery.
Philippe Menasche, M.D., Ph.D., Hospital European George Pompidou, Paris FranceDr. Menasche will report on the progress of the first clinical case in which cardiac cells derived from human embryonic stem cells were used to treat severe heart failure.
Jay Cohn, M.D., University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, Minn.Dr. Cohn, founder of the Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) and a living legend in the field of heart failure, established first-line therapies still in use today. He will present the keynote address on mechanisms of cardiac and vascular remodeling during recovery.
A pioneer in treating advanced heart failure, the University of Utah School of Medicine is a fitting site for the symposium. University of Utah physicians were the first to implant an artificial heart, the Jarvik 7, in 1982, and University of Utah Health Care continues to be at the forefront of cardiovascular research and care today. UUHC is positioned within an NIH-funded network of health centers exploring new regenerative therapies in tandem with heart pumps, and is a center for innovative research that is uncovering genetic, metabolic and other contributors to heart disease.
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