Over the last several years angioplasty has exceeded coronary bypass surgery as the preferred way to treat coronary artery disease. The stents, narrow tubes inserted into the artery to facilitate blood flow, commonly used in the procedure are less invasive than open-heart surgery and offer greater convenience to the patient and the ability to perform more complex procedures.
Despite significant improvements in dialysis treatments, currently over 20 percent of the 350,000 maintenance hemodialysis patients in the United States die each year. A study published in Hemodialysis International finds that this high mortality rate may be attributed to malnutrition.
How drugs such as adrenalin do primarily one thing — in this case, increase the heart rate — now makes more sense to scientists.
Robert Kass, Ph.D., chairman of the department of Pharmacology at Columbia University Medical Center , will present the latest research on the discovery of a potential molecular culprit for atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common arrhythmias in the human heart, which can be a precursor for stroke.
Fiona See, Ph.D., postdoctoral research fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Silviu Itescu, M.B., B.S., will present two groundbreaking abstracts on repairing damage from heart failure with stem cells at AHA this year.
Mark Russo, M.D., M.S., a researcher at Columbia University’s International Center for Health Outcomes and Innovation Research in New York will present findings from a study of the cost of medical management in chronic end-stage heart failure patients. The study found that despite the terminal nature of end-stage heart failure, costs and resource utilization increased dramatically as death approached.
Mario Deng, MD, assistant professor of Medicine in the division of Cardiology and director of the Cardiac Transplantation Research at Columbia University Medical Center, will present his laboratory’s research on the relationship between genes and the rejection of transplanted hearts.
Results of the two largest studies on hyponatremia, SALT-1 and SALT-2, presented Nov. 14 at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions in Chicago, found that the investigational drug tolvaptan treated hyponatremia ? water intoxication — faster and more effectively than available treatments.
In the largest review of “broken heart syndrome” patients ever conducted, Mayo Clinic researchers studied 100 patients and found symptoms recurred in 1 out of 10 patients over a four-year period, and that patients experiencing physical stress had a worse survival rate than those under emotional stress.
About one-third of heart attack patients do not receive treatment to open blocked arteries within the recommended 12-hour timeframe after a heart attack. Treatment such as angioplasty or clot-busting drugs may not be given because patients arrive at the hospital too late.