Cardiomyopathy News and Research

RSS

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.

New understanding of how anger can ventricular arrhythmias

New research published in the March 3, 2009, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology finds that anger-induced electrical changes in the heart can predict future arrhythmias in patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs).

23 Feb 2009

Discovery could lead to novel arrhythmia treatments

Abnormal heart rhythms - arrhythmias - are killers. They strike without warning, causing sudden cardiac death, which accounts for about 10 percent of all deaths in the United States.

21 Jan 2009

1% of the world's population carries a mutation almost guaranteed to lead to heart problems

Heart disease is the number one killer in the world and India carries more than its share of this burden.

19 Jan 2009

The worst luck in the world? The heart disease mutation carried by 60 million

Heart disease is the number one killer in the world and India carries more than its share of this burden. Moreover, the problem is set to rise: it is predicted that by 2010 India's population will suffer approximately 60% of the world's heart disease.

19 Jan 2009

New insight and intervention ideas to help reduce the number of heart attacks

A new national study has shown that nearly 75 percent of patients hospitalized for a heart attack had cholesterol levels that would indicate they were not at high risk for a cardiovascular event, according to current national cholesterol guidelines.

12 Jan 2009

Candesartan shown to be safe new therapy for genetic heart disease

A new clinical trial suggests that long-term use of candesartan, a drug currently used to treat hypertension, may significantly reduce the symptoms of genetic heart disease.

1 Jan 2009

Fruit flies provide better understanding of human heart disease

Researchers at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research have shown in both fruit flies and humans that genes involved in embryonic heart development are also integral to adult heart function.

3 Dec 2008

First study showing how protein fine-tunes the heart

Dr Andrew Whitten, Dr Cy Jeffries and Professor Jill Trewhella, from the School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences, University of Sydney, with Samantha Harris, from the University of California, USA, have the first data showing how a protein in heart muscle cells works to maintain regular heart function.

27 Nov 2008

Follow up results from first case of pulmonary hypertension treated with stem cells

Dr. Leonel Fernandez Liriano, Professor of Medicine at Pontifical Catholic University School of Medicine (PCUSM), announced nine month follow up results for the first patient treated with engineered stem cells in a clinical study of primary pulmonary hypertension.

25 Nov 2008

Scientists use patient's own stem cells to treat heart failure

Researchers at the University of Utah are enrolling people in a new clinical trial that uses a patient's own stem cells to treat ischemic and non-ischemic heart failure.

17 Nov 2008

Regularly exercise good for heart failure patients

Heart failure patients who regularly exercise fare better and feel better about their lives than do similar patients who do not work out on a regular basis, say researchers at Duke University Medical Center.

12 Nov 2008

Racial disparities found in access and use of organ transplantation in children listed for heart transplant

Minority children awaiting a donor heart for transplant have a higher death rate than white children, even after controlling for clinical risk factors, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2008.

11 Nov 2008

Interferon eliminates specific causes of some viruses in heart failure patients, improving clinical outcomes

Giving interferon to heart failure patients with evidence of a chronic viral infection safely eliminated two viruses from their systems and reduced levels of a third virus.

11 Nov 2008

Terminally ill teenager wins the right to die with dignity

A British teenager who is terminally ill has won the right to refuse treatment and forced a hospital to drop its High Court case.

11 Nov 2008

New technique in blood analysis may speed diagnosis of heart attacks

Someday doctors may be able to use a blood test to confirm within minutes, instead of hours, if a patient is having a heart attack, allowing more rapid treatment that could limit damage to heart muscle.

9 Sep 2008

Positive exercise testing in athletes: What does that mean?

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) during sports activity is an uncommon, but catastrophic event. Different efforts to reduce the risk of SCD related to sports have been undertaken. What is the role of the exercise test in this context? What does a positive exercise test mean?

31 Aug 2008

Should we use echocardiography to screen young athletes?

Sudden and unexpected deaths in young competitive athletes are uncommon but highly visible events, which raise concern and ethical issues in both the lay public and medical community. Which is the best strategy to timely identify individuals with cardiac disease responsible for sudden death (primarily, HCM) is largely debated. Namely, the extent to which sophisticated testing, such as echocardiography, is needed is still undefined.

31 Aug 2008

Sports-related sudden cardiac death is reduced by pre-participation cardiovascular screening

Young competitive athletes are perceived by the general population to be the healthiest members of society. The possibility that highly trained athletes may have a potentially serious cardiac condition that can predispose to life-threatening tachyarrhythmias or sudden cardiac death seems paradoxical.

31 Aug 2008

Alcohol consumption declining in U.S., according to new study

Overall alcohol use-particularly consumption of beer-is declining in the US, according to a new study published in the August 2008 issue of The American Journal of Medicine.

6 Aug 2008

Elastic mesh device that cradles heart may impede cardiomyopathy

Cardiac specialists at the University of Rochester Medical Center are studying an investigational device that wraps around the enlarged hearts of heart failure patients in an effort to possibly prevent them from enlarging further. The first case was performed July 16.

31 Jul 2008