Feature Channels: Cardiovascular Health

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Lars G. Svensson, MD, PhD, became the 104th President of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS). He officially succeeded Yolonda L. Colson, MD, PhD, in a presentation during the AATS 103rd Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. Dr. Svensson obtained his medical degree in 1978, an MSc in 1983, and a PhD in 1986 from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. His cardiology, general, and vascular surgery training was at Johannesburg Hospital, followed by cardiovascular surgery training at Cleveland Clinic and Baylor College of Medicine, including a cardiothoracic surgery residency. He was Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at Houston Veterans Affairs Medical Center and worked with Drs. DeBakey and Crawford at Baylor College of Medicine, where he was also Assistant Professor of Surgery. Following this academic appointment, he was then Clinical Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Tufts University, and Instructor at Harvard Medical School while working at Lahey Ho

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A new device invented with the help of an electrophysiologist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center makes a heart procedure safer for patients suffering from atrial fibrillation (AFib), a common irregular heart rhythm.

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Results from a new clinical trial found overweight and obese patients with persistent and paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) who lose weight prior to a catheter ablation procedure have improved clinical outcomes.

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The American College of Cardiology has recognized all eligible Hackensack Meridian medical centers for their demonstrated expertise and commitment in treating patients with chest pain.

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A team of researchers have discovered that a mutation in a ribosomal protein found specifically in heart and skeletal muscle leads to impaired cardiac contractility in mice.

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The new research findings, published in March in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, used data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA), which recruited about 5,000 healthy young adults from four U.S. cities and followed them for 30 years. The researchers were able to calculate from this data the cumulative effect of individual risk factors, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, elevated cholesterol, and the additive effects of multiple risk factors that can cause cardiovascular disease.

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Lesbian and bisexual women were less likely to have ideal cardiovascular health scores compared to heterosexual women, which should make them a priority group for cardiovascular disease prevention, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.

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Building the skills for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can begin as early as age 4 and layer on as children get older, so that by age 10 they may be able to perform effective chest compressions on training manikins, according to a new scientific statement from ILCOR, the American Heart Association and the European Resuscitation Council.

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JSUMC is among the first to voluntarily use new American Heart Association hemorrhagic stroke-specific enhancements to the Get With The Guidelines - Stroke registry

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A machine learning-based model that enables medical institutions to predict the mortality risk for individual cardiac surgery patients has been developed by a Mount Sinai research team, providing a significant performance advantage over current population-derived models.

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First-generation bioresorbable vascular scaffolds (BVS) may be just as effective as drug-eluting metallic stents, which are currently the standard treatment for heart disease patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

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Skin cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer in the United States, with over 5 million cases diagnosed annually. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that melanoma alone accounts for more than 8,000 deaths each year. Thankfully, skin cancer is highly preventable, making it crucial to prioritize protection. Below are some of the latest headlines in the Dermatology channel.

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Seemingly healthy people whose blood contained antibodies associated with a condition called antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) were significantly more likely to experience a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack or stroke than those without, a study led by UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists shows

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Com muita frequência, as pessoas que estão esperando por transplantes de órgãos que salvam vidas não conseguem realizar o procedimento. Um dos maiores desafios é a falta de órgãos doados em condições viáveis.

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Es demasiado frecuente que las personas que esperan un trasplante de órganos para salvar sus vidas no puedan conseguirlo. Una de las mayores dificultades es la falta de órganos donados viables.

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The Guerin Family Congenital Heart Program in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai has earned accreditation from the Adult Congenital Heart Association, becoming one of only six programs in California and just 50 in the U.S. to be awarded the organization’s highest distinction.

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In a review of the latest research, few stroke studies addressed racist policies, such as residential segregation, or social determinants of health, such as neighborhood deprivation, walkability or security; food availability; economic stability; education quality; or employment and health insurance, all of which play a role in stroke incidence, care and outcomes.

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Title 42, the United States pandemic rule that had been used to immediately deport hundreds of thousands of migrants who crossed the border illegally over the last three years, has expired. Those migrants will have the opportunity to apply for asylum. President Biden's new rules to replace Title 42 are facing legal challenges. Border crossings have already risen sharply, as many migrants attempt to cross before the measure expires on Thursday night. Some have said they worry about tighter controls and uncertainty ahead. Immigration is once again a major focus of the media as we examine the humanitarian, political, and public health issues migrants must go through.

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The Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF) announced that TVT: The Structural Heart Summit will feature 15 Late-Breaking Clinical Science studies. An annual meeting featuring cutting-edge research and techniques for structural heart interventions, TVT will take place June 7-10, 2023, at the Phoenix Convention Center – West in Phoenix, Arizona.

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Eric Bredahl, PhD, and his team of undergraduate research assistants are trusting that Nature, if asked nicely, or at least insistently, will yield another of her secrets.

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Chaos congratulates Yuzuru Kato, Thomas Lilienkamp, and Tiemo Pedergnana for winning the journal’s 2022 Edward N. Lorenz Early Career Awards. Kato was recognized for introducing a definition of a phase function for quantum rhythmic systems, Lilienkamp was commended for developing a low-energy and safer approach to defibrillation, and Pedergnana was selected for work to better understand if and how an exact potential, which greatly simplifies analysis of the Langevin equation, can be found for a given system. The winners will split a $2,000 honorarium and are invited to contribute a perspective article to the journal.

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Researchers show phospholipid derivatives from a Western diet promote increased levels of gut-derived bacterial toxins, systemic inflammation, atherosclerosis plaque formation

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May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Get your mental health news here.

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In medicine and science, the term “pathogenesis” describes the origin and development of disease. There is not, however, a broadly accepted term to describe the other half of the equation: the process of healing and recovery.

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In a study publishing May 10 in JAMA Cardiology, senior author and UCSF cardiologist Geoff Tison, MD, MPH, and first author Robert Avram, MD, of the Montreal Heart Institute, set out to determine whether deep neural networks (DNNs), a category of AI algorithm, could be used to predict cardiac pump (contractile) function from standard angiogram videos. They developed and tested a DNN called CathEF, to estimate LVEF from coronary angiograms of the left side of the heart.

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In an effort to determine the cause behind a rare condition that causes heart failure in children, University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers have identified new gene mutations responsible for the disorder in an infant patient. They were then able to learn how the mutation works and used a drug to reverse its effects in heart muscle cells derived from stem cells from the patient.

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Efforts are underway to address the “epidemic of loneliness and isolation” affecting the country, as recently addressed by the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy who is laying out a “National Strategy to Advance Social Connection” initiative. Virginia Tech neuroscientist Georgia Hodes says that reports of depression and anxiety are up at least 3-fold since the start of the COVID epidemic.

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Black and Hispanic adults at risk of developing cardiovascular disease are less likely to take statin drugs than white adults with the same risk factors, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers reported in JAMA Cardiology.

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A pneumonia trial – the largest ever led by the University of Bristol – will investigate whether aspirin can reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke in patients who are admitted to hospital with pneumonia.

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Las personas reaccionan al estrés de manera diferente y la manera en que reaccionamos puede repercutir en la posibilidad de desarrollar problemas de salud graves, incluidas enfermedades cardíacas.

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Todo mundo reage ao estresse de forma diferente, e a maneira de reagir pode ter um impacto nas chances de desenvolver sérios problemas de saúde, inclusive problemas cardíacos.

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Next Sunday will be the first Mother’s Day that Cedars-Sinai pediatrician Tracy Zaslow faces without her mother, Carol, by her side.

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An exhaustive cost-benefit analysis of population genetic testing published in Annals of Internal Medicine concludes with a recommendation to U.S. health policymakers to adopt routine testing of adults ages 40 and under for three genetic conditions posing high risk of life-threatening illness.

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Each year, 3 out of 10,000 babies will be born with critical left heart obstruction (CLHO). Most infants born with severe left-sided cardiac defects, such as CLHO, require at least three major open-heart surgeries before the age of 5.

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Asian Americans have significant differences in genetics, socioeconomic factors, culture, diet, lifestyle, health interventions and acculturation levels based on the Asian region of their ancestry that likely have unique effects on their risk for heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.

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Findings reveal a previously unknown way in which the brain and immune system talk to each other and may identify a new therapeutic target for MS and other brain disorders.

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Acute kidney injury (AKI) represents a major morbidity following cardiac surgery; and, when moderate or severe, it is strongly associated with postoperative mortality. Approximately one-third of adults and up to half of all children who undergo cardiac surgery develop some degree of postoperative AKI.

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Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common type of birth defect and the leading cause of mortality from birth defects, affecting about 1% of all live births per year in the United States. With advances in medical therapies and surgical techniques, the survival outcomes of patients with CHD have improved dramatically over the years.

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Although the On-X aortic valve and apixaban have been approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), they had not been approved to be used together. Between May 2020 and September 2022, the PROACT Xa randomized, multicenter, open-label trial compared the direct factor Xa inhibitor apixaban (Eliquis) with warfarin in patients with bileaflet carbon aortic valves.

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As thoracic researchers consider the myriad effects of COVID-19, they are looking at the impacts of the disease on patients and treatments, as well as care and treatment during the pandemic.

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The American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. A wealth of data has shown that diversity in the physician workforce improves patient care, safety, physician well-being, and innovation; and fair compensation is essential to culturing a diverse workforce.