Newswise — INFORMATION REGARDING ANY PRESENTATION IS EMBARGOED UNTIL THE TIME OF SESSION

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center physicians and researchers are involved in more than two dozen oral and poster presentations and other events at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions taking place Nov. 4 through 7 in Orlando, Fla.

Among those contributing and available to provide additional information are Eduardo Marbán, M.D., Ph.D., director of Cedars-Sinai's Heart Institute; P.K. Shah, M.D., director of the Division of Cardiology and director of the Atherosclerosis Research Center; and Alfredo Trento, director of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery.

Following is a compilation of topics, key presenters/authors, session types and presentation times.

Sunday, Nov. 4

Does Complement Contribute to Intimal Thickening of Injured Carotid Arteries? Insights from Immune Deficient Mice and Complement Depletion Strategy " Paul C. Dimayuga and Bojan Cercek " Basic Science poster session " 9:30 to 11 a.m.

B-type Natriuretic Peptide, Subclinical Atherosclerosis, and Inducible Myocardial Ischemia " Nathan D. Wong (UC-Irvine) and Daniel S. Berman " Clinical Science poster session " 9:30 to 11 a.m.

Human Cardiac Stem Cells for the Failing Heart " Eduardo Marbán " Basic Science moderated presentation " 9:40 a.m.

CAPON Interacts With Neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase to Modulate L-type Calcium Current and Action Potential Duration in Ventricular Cardiomyocytes " Kuan-Cheng Chang (Johns Hopkins) and Eduardo Marbán " Basic Science poster session " 3 to 4:30 p.m.

Tenascin-C Gene Deletion Induces Plaque Hemorrhage and Markedly Accelerates Atherosclerosis in Apo E Null Mice: Potential Role of Mast Cells and Eotaxin " Lai Wang and Behrooz G. Sharifi " Basic Science oral session " 4:30 p.m.

Monday, Nov. 5

Secretion of Pro-Survival and Pro-Angiogenic Growth Factors in Vitro and in Vivo by Cardiac Progenitor Cells from Human Biopsies " Isotta Chimenti (University "La Sapienza," Rome, Italy) and Eduardo Marbán " Late-Breaking Basic Science poster session " 9:30 to 11 a.m.

Autologous Cardiac-derived Stem Cells Decrease Infarct Size Compared to Placebo in a Porcine Model of Ischemic Cardiomyopathy " Peter Johnston (Johns Hopkins) and Eduardo Marbán " Late-Breaking Basic Science poster session " 9:30 to 11 a.m.

Human Cardiosphere-derived Cells Engraft Long-term in Infarcted Mice and Preserve Left Ventricular Function " Rachel Ruckdeschel Smith (Johns Hopkins) and Eduardo Marbán " Basic Science oral session " 2:45 p.m.

Co-Expression of Connexin40 or 45 Slows Connexin43-Dependent Conduction " Eddy Kizana (Johns Hopkins) and Eduardo Marbán " Basic Science poster session " 3 to 4:30 p.m.

Cell Therapy of the Failing Heart " Eduardo Marbán is a co-moderator " Plenary Session " 3:45 to 5 p.m.

Tuesday, Nov. 6

Transfer of siRNA Molecules via Gap Junctions in Heart Cells " Eddy Kizana (Johns Hopkins) and Eduardo Marbán " Basic Science oral session " 11 a.m.

Prevalence and Predictors of Left Ventricular Mechanical Asynchrony in Patients with Refractory Heart Failure " Asim Rafique and Tasneem Naqvi " Clinical Science oral session " 9 a.m.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Low Dose Hormone Therapy on Myocardial Ischemia in Postmenopausal Women with No Obstructive Coronary Artery Disease: Results from the NHLBI-sponsored WISE " C. Noel Bairey Merz and Carl Pepine (University of Florida) " Clinical Science oral session " 9:45 a.m.

Pleiotrophin Is Expressed In Highly Vascularized Regions of Human Atherosclerosis Plaques: Interferon-gamma Regulates Pleiotrophin Expression in Macrophages Through the Jak/stat Pathway " Fuqiang Li and Behrooz G. Sharifi " Basic Science oral session " 11 a.m.

Automatic Determination of the Upper Limit of Vulnerability Using ICD Electrograms " Charles Swerdlow and Samir Saba (UPMC Presbyterian, Pittsburgh) " Clinical Science oral session " 11:45 a.m.

Percutaneous Coronary Intervention for Management of CAD: Evidence-Based or Enthusiasm-Bound? " Sanjay Kaul and George Diamond " Clinical Science oral session " 3 p.m.

Predicting Success of Prospective Gating in Dual Source Coronary CTA: Development of a Model and Initial Experience " Ariel Gutstein and Daniel S. Berman " Clinical Science poster session " 3 to 4:30 p.m.

Novel Lentiviral Vectors Bearing the Cardiac-Specific Promoter of the Sodium-Calcium Exchanger (NCX1) Report Cardiogenic Differentiation in Stem Cells " Andreas S. Barth (Johns Hopkins) and Eduardo Marbán " Basic Science oral session " 3:45 p.m.

Identification of Substrate of Ventricular Tachycardia by Regional Strain MR Imaging in Infarct Porcine Heart " Tetsuo Sasano (Johns Hopkins) and Eduardo Marbán " Clinical Science oral session " 4:15 p.m.

Wednesday, Nov. 7

Cardiac Nuclear Imaging " Daniel S. Berman is co-moderator of Clinical Science e-poster sessions " 10:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

Gender Differences in Long-term Prognosis of Patients with Known or Suspected CAD and Severe LV Dysfunction Undergoing Gated Myocardial Perfusion SPECT " Aiden Abidov (William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Mich.) and Daniel S. Berman " Clinical Science moderated e-poster session " 10:45 a.m.

Direct Comparison Between Gated Single-photon Emission Computed Tomography Imaging By High Speed D-SPECT and A-SPECT In The Evaluation of Patients with Known or Suspected Coronary Artery Disease " Muneo Oba and Daniel S. Berman " Clinical Science moderated e-poster session " 12:06 p.m.

Histological Substrate For Chronic Atrial Fibrillation " Bich Lien Nguyen and Saqib Masroor (Hackensack University Medical Center, N.J.) " Clinical Science moderated e-poster session " 3:57 p.m.

Type of Menopause, Hormone Therapy and Coronary Artery Disease in Women: New Insights from the NHLBI-sponsored Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation " B. Delia Johnson (University of Pittsburgh) and Sheryl F. Kelsey (University of Pittsburgh) " Population Science moderated e-poster session " 1:54 p.m. [Note: C. Noel Bairey Merz of Cedars-Sinai chairs the WISE study and is available to discuss this research.]

Thoracic Aortic Calcium vs. Coronary Artery Calcium for the Prediction of Coronary Heart Disease and Cardiovascular Events " Nathan D. Wong (UC-Irvine) and Daniel S. Berman " Clinical Science oral session " 2 p.m.

Underidentification of Need for Statin Therapy by ATP III NCEP Risk Assessment Compared to SHAPE Guidelines " Daniel S. Berman and Nathan D. Wong (UC-Irvine) " Clinical Science oral session " 4 p.m.

Tissue Engineered Graft Grown in the Mouse Peritoneal Cavity: The Role of Peritoneal-derived Stem/Progenitor Cells " Lei Song and Behrooz G. Sharifi " Clinical Science poster session " 3 to 4:30 p.m.

Changes in Left and Right Ventricular Structure and Function of Donor Hearts During the First Year After Heart Transplantation Using Tissue Doppler Imaging and Myocardial Performance Index " Lawrence Czer and Alfredo Trento " Clinical Science poster session " 3 to 4:30 p.m.

Nessun Dorma: Have the Risks of Rosiglitazone Been Exaggerated? " Sanjay Kaul " Population Science oral session " 4:45 p.m.

The first in Southern California and one of only 10 hospitals in the state whose nurses have been honored with the prestigious Magnet designation, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is one of the largest nonprofit academic medical centers in the Western United States. For 19 consecutive years, it has been named Los Angeles' most preferred hospital for all health needs in an independent survey of area residents. Cedars-Sinai is internationally renowned for its diagnostic and treatment capabilities as well as breakthroughs in biomedical research and superlative medical education. It ranks among the top 10 non-university hospitals in the nation for its research activities and is fully accredited by the Association for the Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs, Inc. (AAHRPP). Additional information is available at http://www.cedars-sinai.edu.