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Novel clinical research approaches for rapidly identifying and preventing congenital cardiovascular defects

Structural and functional congenital cardiovascular abnormalities present at birth are the leading source of all congenital defects encountered in live births. Nearly half a million children in the United States have structural heart problems ranging in severity from relatively simple issues, such as small holes between chambers of the heart, to very severe malformations, including complete absence of one or more chambers or valves.

24 Apr 2010

HeartWare International presents clinical trial data of Ventricular Assist System at ISHLT annual meeting

HeartWare International, Inc., a leading innovator of less invasive, miniaturized circulatory support technologies revolutionizing the treatment of advanced heart failure, today announced that data from its international clinical trial and commercial experience of the HeartWare® Ventricular Assist System showed a survival rate of 90 percent at six months and an actuarial survival rate of 86 percent at 12 months post implant.

24 Apr 2010

Complete revascularization reduces mortality rate in CAD patients

A 3-year, retrospective study by cardiologists from the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation and the University of Minnesota determined that 28.8% of patients with significant coronary artery disease (CAD) who did not undergo complete revascularization had a higher mortality rate than patients completely revascularized. Results of this study appear in the May issue of Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions.

24 Apr 2010

AlloMap molecular expression test reduces need for invasive heart-muscle biopsies

Monitoring rejection in heart transplantation patients with a simple blood test co-developed by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center physician-scientist Dr. Mario Deng in 2005 can safely reduce their need for invasive heart-muscle biopsies, a new study has found.

24 Apr 2010

Continuous flow mechanical circulatory support devices improve outcomes in patients awaiting heart transplants

New data show improved outcomes, better survival rates and lower costs with the use of continuous flow mechanical circulatory support devices in patients awaiting heart transplants. Research will be presented this week during symposia at the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) 30th Annual Meeting and Scientific Session at the Hilton Chicago.

24 Apr 2010

Cardiola's m.pulse MCP based system improves cardiac function in stable CHF patients

Cardiola AG announced today that the Company's CE-Marked m.pulse® Muscular CounterPulsation ("MCP")-based system demonstrated "an immediate improvement of cardiac output with non-invasive means" in a patient population of advanced yet stable chronic heart failure. The effects could be shown in 22 patients over three consecutive days.

24 Apr 2010

Georgia investigators increasingly use computer data to catch Medicaid fraud

Georgia investigators "are collecting millions more dollars each year as they catch more Medicaid fraud and mistakes" and they are increasingly relying on computer data analysis as a helpful tool. These cases often uncover unscrupulous medical providers who develop schemes such as overbilling to defraud the state Medicaid program.

24 Apr 2010

Baptist Hospital East adopts CardiacAssist's TandemHeart System

CardiacAssist Inc. announced today that Baptist Hospital East has adopted the company's TandemHeart System.

23 Apr 2010

Study: 28.8% of CAD patients who fails to undergo complete revascularization face higher mortality rate

23 Apr 2010

Advances in understanding of cardiac-specific genes in heart development

Researchers at the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital (THI at St. Luke's) announced today the results of research which they believe marks a significant advance in understanding how cardiac-specific genes are turned on during the development of the heart in mice embryos.

23 Apr 2010

Real-people videos and expert advice to address childhood obesity

More than anything, bad habits are to blame for the childhood obesity epidemic. For Alejandra and her parents, food was an expression of love. But overeating and other unhealthy habits led this 11-year-old Hispanic girl to become an overweight kid.

23 Apr 2010

Coronary CTA can be alternative, non-invasive diagnostic imaging test to triage CAD patients: Study

Non-invasive coronary computed tomography angiography is a cost-effective alternative to invasive cardiac catheterization in the care of patients who have positive stress test results but a less than 50 percent chance of actually having significant coronary artery disease, according to a study in the May issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology.

23 Apr 2010

New blood test to determine patients at low risk for rejection of transplanted hearts

After his heart transplant in 2005, Ramon Llenado underwent a biopsy every week, then every month, then every three months. Most heart transplant patients face a lifetime of these invasive tests, which involve snipping out tiny pieces of heart to check for possible organ rejection.

23 Apr 2010

New on-off switches: SUMO protein silences developmental genes, SNP2 snips SUMO to allow gene expression

Deleting a gene in mouse embryos caused cardiac defects and early death, leading researchers to identify a mechanism that turns developmental genes off and on as an embryo matures, a team led by a scientist at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reported today in Molecular Cell.

23 Apr 2010

Researchers take major step to predict adverse drug reactions using genetic information

In a new study, researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have taken a major step toward the ability to predict adverse drug reactions, using genetic, cellular, and clinical information to learn why some medicines cause heart arrhythmias in patients. Published in the April 20 issue of the journal Science Signaling, the new framework described in the study could potentially be applied to the study of medications that treat other diseases and disorders such as epilepsy and autism.

23 Apr 2010

Research associates diabetes with atrial fibrillation

As the U.S. population keeps aging and gaining weight, diabetes is becoming increasingly common. Some research has associated diabetes with the most common kind of chronically irregular heartbeat, called atrial fibrillation, which can raise the risk for stroke and death. But results of past studies of diabetes and atrial fibrillation have conflicted.

23 Apr 2010

Techniques to protect organs during bypass surgery impair autoregulation, increase risk of stroke: Study

The standard practice of cooling and then rewarming a patient to prevent organ damage during cardiac bypass surgery may impair the body's mechanism that controls blood flow to the brain, potentially increasing the patient's risk of stroke, new research from Johns Hopkins suggests.

23 Apr 2010

Interesting heart rate dynamics in premature infants

A normal healthy heart beats at a variable rate with extraordinarily complex fluctuations across a wide range of time scales. Reduced complexity of heart rate has both clinical and dynamical significance - it may provide warning of impending illness, or clues about the dynamics of the heart's pacemaking system.

23 Apr 2010

Hospitals striving to provide balloon angioplasties in under 60 minutes for patients undergoing heart attacks

National guidelines say patients undergoing heart attacks should receive balloon angioplasties as soon as possible or within 90 minutes of arriving at the hospital -- known as the "door-to-balloon time."

23 Apr 2010

Researchers produce stem cells from eggs of aging mice for regenerative medicine

Researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have created stem cells from the eggs of aging mice that could be used for reproductive purposes and regenerative medicine. The study, published in April issue of Aging Cell, found that even though the eggs from older females were slightly less efficient at making stem cells than those from younger females, the capacity to create stem cells was sustained.

23 Apr 2010

Heart News and Research

Novel clinical research approaches for rapidly identifying and preventing congenital cardiovascular defects

HeartWare International presents clinical trial data of Ventricular Assist System at ISHLT annual meeting

Complete revascularization reduces mortality rate in CAD patients

AlloMap molecular expression test reduces need for invasive heart-muscle biopsies

Continuous flow mechanical circulatory support devices improve outcomes in patients awaiting heart transplants

Cardiola's m.pulse MCP based system improves cardiac function in stable CHF patients

Georgia investigators increasingly use computer data to catch Medicaid fraud

Baptist Hospital East adopts CardiacAssist's TandemHeart System

Study: 28.8% of CAD patients who fails to undergo complete revascularization face higher mortality rate

Advances in understanding of cardiac-specific genes in heart development

Real-people videos and expert advice to address childhood obesity

Coronary CTA can be alternative, non-invasive diagnostic imaging test to triage CAD patients: Study

New blood test to determine patients at low risk for rejection of transplanted hearts

New on-off switches: SUMO protein silences developmental genes, SNP2 snips SUMO to allow gene expression

Researchers take major step to predict adverse drug reactions using genetic information

Research associates diabetes with atrial fibrillation

Techniques to protect organs during bypass surgery impair autoregulation, increase risk of stroke: Study

Interesting heart rate dynamics in premature infants

Hospitals striving to provide balloon angioplasties in under 60 minutes for patients undergoing heart attacks

Researchers produce stem cells from eggs of aging mice for regenerative medicine

Bringing real-time analytics to downstream bioprocess monitoring

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

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