Cardiomyopathy News and Research

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Cardiomyopathy is a group of diseases with primary, usually diffuse, involvement of the myocardium. The myocardial disease is not secondary to ischaemic, valvular, congenital or pericardial disease.

HCM: Questions to ask

While a jury awarded Tony and Angela Key, $1.6 million following a malpractice trial in the death of their 22-year-old son, Antwoine, a basketball player for Eastern Connecticut State University who collapsed and died during a game in 2005, it is a small measure of solace when a young life is cut short, particularly when the cause - hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) - could have been treated, had it been properly diagnosed.

3 Apr 2010

Aastrom Biosciences' RESTORE-CLI trial: Final patient treated

Aastrom Biosciences, Inc., a leading developer of autologous cellular therapies for the treatment of severe cardiovascular diseases, today reported that the final patient has been treated in the company's ongoing multi-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled U.S. Phase 2b clinical trial designated RESTORE-CLI. This patient received intramuscular injections of either Aastrom's tissue repair cells (TRCs) or electrolyte solution (placebo) for the treatment of critical limb ischemia (CLI), the end-stage of peripheral arterial disease.

26 Mar 2010

Sports Injuries: Story ideas from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

NCAA BASKETABLL TOURNAMENT COACHES, REFEREES, PLAYERS AND FANS: IT'S YOUR VOICE! From the first tip-off of March Madness to the championship's final buzzer, thousands of people will relentlessly scream and shout, placing tremendous strain on the voice. While no one is recommending silence, the constant pressure on the vocal chords can cause great damage.

22 Mar 2010

Aastrom Biosciences treats final patient in IMPACT-DCM Phase 2 surgical clinical trial

Aastrom Biosciences, Inc., a leading developer of autologous cellular therapies for the treatment of severe cardiovascular diseases, today reported the final patient treatment in the company's ongoing U.S. Phase 2 surgical clinical trial designated IMPACT-DCM.

10 Mar 2010

USF study: HHV-6 causes permanent infection by inserting its DNA into human chromosomes

Human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) infects nearly 100 percent of humans in early childhood, and the infection then lasts for the rest of a person's life. Now, a team led by Peter Medveczky, MD, a professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at the University of South Florida, has discovered that in some individuals, HHV-6 causes such a permanent infection by inserting or "integrating" its DNA into human chromosomes.

9 Mar 2010

Axiogenesis, Lonza Cologne announce global distribution agreement

Axiogenesis AG has entered into a worldwide, exclusive distribution agreement with Lonza Cologne AG effective 01 January 2010. The agreement includes Axiogenesis’s current product and service portfolio, including the industry standard Cor.At® mouse embryonic stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes.

3 Mar 2010

InterSystems Ensemble platform enables first successful electronic transmission of genetic data

InterSystems Corporation, the global leader in software for connected healthcare, today announced that InterSystems Ensemble® was the software platform for the first-ever successful electronic transmission of comprehensive genetic data. The information was sent cross-country from Boston-based Partners HealthCare Center for Personalized Genetic Medicine (PCPGM) to Intermountain HealthCare in Salt Lake City, Utah. The announcement about reaching this milestone in personalized medicine came at the HIMSS10 conference.

2 Mar 2010

Shire receives FDA Fast Track designation for REPLAGAL

Shire plc, the global specialty biopharmaceutical company, announces it has received Fast Track designation from the FDA for REPLAGAL(R) (agalsidase alfa), its enzyme replacement therapy for Fabry disease.

24 Feb 2010

Black women are more prone to peripartum cardiomyopathy around childbirth time

A study examining the incidence of peripartum cardiomyopathy in women who gave birth at a Medical College of Georgia's teaching hospital between July 2003 and July 2008, showed that while 55 percent of the women were white, 93 percent of those who developed cardiomyopathy were black, said Dr. Mindy B. Gentry, an MCG cardiologist.

23 Feb 2010

Discharged VAD implanted pediatric patient receives successful heart transplant after eight months

The wait is over for 16-year-old Francesco "Frank" De Santiago. On January 29, De Santiago received a donor heart in a nine-hour transplant operation at Texas Children's Heart Center De Santiago made news last October as the first child ever discharged from a pediatric hospital with an implanted mechanical heart pump, or ventricular assist device (VAD). Until then, pediatric patients with VADs remained in the hospital, often in ICU, while awaiting a donor heart.

15 Feb 2010

Third-quarter fiscal 2010 results announced by Clinical Data

Clinical Data, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLDA) today announced the Company’s operational and financial results for its third fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2009, confirming its plans to submit a new drug application (NDA) for vilazodone for the treatment of depression this quarter.

9 Feb 2010

Implanted ventricular assist heart pump for infants project awarded $5.6M federal contract

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and their collaborators have been awarded a $5.6 million federal contract to pursue the continued development of an implanted ventricular assist heart pump for infants and small children with congenital or acquired heart disease. The project aims to provide much-needed access to the sophisticated technologies that have saved the lives of older heart failure patients.

5 Feb 2010

NHLBI awarded four contracts to test new devices to help children with congenital heart defects

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded four contracts totaling $23.6 million to begin preclinical testing of devices to help children born with congenital heart defects or those who develop heart failure.

5 Feb 2010

Shire's clinical study results for treatment of Gaucher disease to be presented at LDN World Symposium

Shire plc, the global specialty biopharmaceutical company, today announced that data from one of three Phase III clinical trials for velaglucerase alfa, the company's enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) in development for the treatment of Type 1 Gaucher disease, will be presented at the Lysosomal Disease Network (LDN) World Symposium, February 10-12, 2010 in Miami, Florida.

4 Feb 2010

Simple genetic test can help in detecting heart abnormalities

Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a genetic disease that causes the heart muscle to become abnormally large. It often goes undetected and, as a result, HCM has the dubious distinction of being the leading cause of sudden death in children, young adults and athletes.

2 Feb 2010

FDA approves neurostimulation treatment for heart failure

The FDA recently 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.

2 Feb 2010

ZOLL Medical's LifeVest Wearable Defibrillator named one of top five innovative medical devices of 2009

ZOLL Medical Corporation, a manufacturer of medical devices and related software solutions, announced today that the Medical Device Network has named the LifeVest® Wearable Defibrillator as one of the five most innovative and life-changing medical devices of 2009.

28 Jan 2010

Physician attributes sudden death in young athletes to inherited heart diseases

The sporting world lost two young athletes this month to sudden cardiac death. Preliminary autopsy reports indicate that Chicago Bears defensive end Gaines Adams, 26, and Southern Indiana center Jeron Lewis, 21, both had enlarged hearts at the time of their death.

20 Jan 2010

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals presents data on multiple therapeutic programs at RNAi Symposium

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leading RNAi therapeutics company, today announced that it presented data from multiple pre-clinical and clinical programs at the “RNA Silencing: Mechanism, Biology, and Application” Keystone Symposium held January 14-19, 2010 in Keystone, Colorado. Alnylam and its collaborators presented data from Alnylam’s therapeutic programs including transthyretin (TTR)-mediated amyloidosis and Huntington’s disease, as well as new data on delivery approaches for the systemic delivery of RNAi therapeutics.