Myocarditis News and Research

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In medicine (cardiology), myocarditis is inflammation of heart muscle (myocardium). It resembles a heart attack but coronary arteries are not blocked.

Insight into role of cytokines in autoimmune diseases

Cytokines, a varied group of signaling chemicals in the body, have been described as the software that runs the immune system, but when that software malfunctions, dysregulation of the immune system can result in debilitating autoimmune diseases such as lupus, arthritis, and diabetes. Leading experts in the field of cytokine research present their most up-to-date findings and unique perspectives on the role of cytokines in autoimmune diseases in a special issue of Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research, a peer-reviewed publication of Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

28 Oct 2011

FDA approves Shire's Lialda for maintenance of remission of ulcerative colitis

Shire plc, the global specialty biopharmaceutical company, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Lialda® (mesalamine) Delayed Release Tablets for the maintenance of remission in patients with ulcerative colitis.

18 Jul 2011

ECG results for young athletes prone to misinterpretation

Pediatric cardiologists are prone to misinterpreting electrocardiograms when using the results to determine whether young athletes have heart defects that could make exercising perilous, according to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital. This is the first research to examine the acumen of pediatric cardiologists from several health-care institutions in using ECGs to detect rare heart conditions associated with sudden cardiac death.

15 Jul 2011

Bristol-Myers Squibb's second YERVOY Phase 3 trial on metastatic melanoma meets primary endpoint

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company today announced results from a second Phase 3 randomized, double blind study demonstrating that YERVOY (ipilimumab) prolonged the lives of patients with metastatic melanoma.

6 Jun 2011

Roche, Bristol-Myers Squibb to evaluate YERVOY and vemurafenib treatment for metastatic melanoma

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company announced today it has entered in to a clinical collaboration agreement with Roche to evaluate the utility of Bristol-Myers Squibb's CTLA-4 inhibitor, YERVOY (ipilimumab), in combination with Roche's investigational oral BRAF inhibitor, vemurafenib, in treating patients with a specific type of metastatic melanoma.

4 Jun 2011

WSU researcher develops potential vaccine for Chlamydia

A Wayne State University School of Medicine researcher has developed a potential first ever vaccine for Chlamydia, the world's most prevalent sexually transmitted disease and the leading cause of new cases of blindness.

21 Apr 2011

Attacks by specific type of immune cells cause inflammations of heart muscle

Scientists of the German Cancer Research Center, jointly with colleagues in the United States, have found out that inflammations of the heart muscle are caused by attacks of a specific type of immune cells. These immune cells attack the body's own tissue because during their maturation they did not have the chance to develop tolerance against a protein that is only found in the heart muscle.

30 Mar 2011

BMY receives FDA approval for YERVOY to treat metastatic melanoma

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved YERVOY 3 mg/kg for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma.

28 Mar 2011

Protein α-myosin could be a promising therapeutic target for myocarditis

Myocardits is an inflammation of the heart muscles that is a major cause of heart failure in young patients. In some cases, the disease is caused by viral infection, but in other patients it is linked to an autoimmune attack on the heart muscle. There are few effective treatment options for myocarditis, in part because the molecular mechanisms that underlie the defect are poorly defined.

24 Mar 2011

Scientists reveal protein target that can trigger myocarditis

People with type 1 diabetes, whose insulin-producing cells have been destroyed by the body's own immune system, are particularly vulnerable to a form of inflammatory heart disease caused by a different autoimmune reaction.

24 Mar 2011

Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute implants VAD device to help individuals with advanced heart failure

15 Nov 2010

Young father receives life-saving intervention prior heart transplant surgery

James "Jimmy" Armstrong hadn't missed a "Mac" in 28 years. At 44, he's one of the youngest "goats" in the Chicago Yacht Club. Sailors receive the designation of "goat" once they've completed 20 or more "Macs", the 333-mile boat race from Chicago to Mackinac, Mich. Armstrong has sailed the race every year since he was 16. But, he wasn't among the sailors this past July. Instead, he was in intensive care awaiting heart transplant following a harrowing experience spurred by severe case of myocarditis-a little-known condition causing inflammation of the heart muscle.

15 Nov 2010

FDA approves Gamunex-C for primary immunodeficiency treatment

Talecris Biotherapeutics announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Gamunex-C (Immune Globulin Injection [Human], 10% Caprylate/Chromatography Purified) for subcutaneous administration in the treatment of primary immunodeficiency (PI).

15 Oct 2010

Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute implants two Heartware ventricular assist devices

The Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute of Northwestern Memorial Hospital recently implanted a patient with two of the smallest experimental ventricular assist devices (VADs) currently available for study in humans. VADs are designed to assist either the right (RVAD) or left (LVAD) ventricle, or both (BiVAD) at once. This is the first time that two Heartware VADs have been implanted in the left and right ventricles anywhere in North America—a "game changer" in the realm of heart assist devices according to Patrick M. McCarthy, MD, chief of the hospital's division of cardiac surgery and director of the hospital's Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute.

11 Aug 2010

Canadian tourist bitten by a Katipo spider in New Zealand

A Canadian tourist suffered a serious heart inflammation called myocarditis after he was bitten by a poisonous spider when he went swimming nude in New Zealand.

13 May 2010

Survey reveals Gamunex as preferred IGIV therapy among neurologists

Talecris Biotherapeutics, Inc., today announced results of a new survey showing that Gamunex® (Immune Globulin Intravenous [Human], 10% Caprylate/Chromatography Purified) is the preferred immune globulin intravenous (IGIV) among neurologists who indicated a brand preference. In the survey, conducted online by Harris Interactive® on behalf of Talecris, neurologists selected Gamunex over four times more often than all other available liquid IGIV therapies, with a statistically significant margin (p<0.05).

13 Apr 2010

Animal study shows chymase inhibitors could advance treatments for high BP and heart failure

Millions of patients with high blood pressure and heart failure take a class of drugs known as ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) inhibitors. These drugs prevent the body from processing angiotensin II, a hormone that constricts blood vessels.

26 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

Cardiac MRI useful for diagnosing myocarditis

Myocarditis is an important, and often unrecognized cause of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Several new diagnostic methods, such as cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), are useful for diagnosing myocarditis, according to a study published in the November 2009 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

4 Nov 2009

New CCS guidelines and position papers for physicians and nurse practitioners

Several new guidelines and position papers offering the most up to date information to ensure that clinicians practice evidence-based medicine were released at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2009 this week.

28 Oct 2009