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.

Genetic defect leads to electrical instability and mechanical pump failure

In genetic mapping of a large family with several members affected by a type of heart failure called dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), the Mayo Clinic team found a defect in a gene on chromosome 3 called SCN5A.

26 Jan 2005

Molecular pathway turns a juvenile heart into an adult heart

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have discovered the molecular sequence of events in mice that turn a juvenile heart into an adult heart capable of responding to increased workloads.

17 Jan 2005

Potential cure for lymphoma in HIV patients

Stem cell transplants have become the standard of care for patients with relapsed lymphoma, but not for patients who suffer from both this disease and HIV.

7 Jan 2005

Living alone, financial difficulties, excessive use of alcohol associated with the onset of depression among outpatients with heart failure

Living alone, financial difficulties, excessive use of alcohol and poor results on a heart failure questionnaire were associated with the onset of depression among outpatients with heart failure, according to a new study in the Dec. 21, 2004 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

21 Dec 2004

Heart Hospital begins experimental cell therapy

Physicians at the Heart Hospital became the first team in the UK to treat a patient with an experimental new therapy designed to repair damage to cardiac muscle resulting from a heart attack. If successful, this treatment would give doctors the ability to improve the hearts of people with heart failure, rather than just treating the symptoms.

6 Dec 2004

Troponin genes offer new insights to familial heart failure

Mutations in the troponin protein complex may be useful for predicting the course of heart failure due to dilated cardiomyopathy and also for guiding treatment and research, according to a new study in the Nov. 16, 2004 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

16 Nov 2004

Fluorescent protein tool may speed identification of molecular changes that reveal cells' inner workings

Scientists at Johns Hopkins and the University of Texas Medical Branch have created a new tool that easily reveals when and where a key cellular signal is active.

16 Nov 2004

Women with arrhythmias may also benefit from implantable cardioverter-defibrillators

A small study of patients with heart failure not caused by blocked arteries indicates that women, as well as men, may benefit from implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICD), reported researchers at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2004.

11 Nov 2004

Two hearts are better than one for toddler

Camila Gonzalez now has two hearts beating separate rhythms inside her tiny chest. At 22 months of age, she became the youngest child in the United States to receive a donor’s heart while also retaining her original one.

25 Oct 2004

Fourth gene found for distal muscular dystrophy

MDA grantees Peter Hedera, a neurologist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and Nigel Laing, a molecular biologist at the University of Western Australia, were part of a team that identified a fourth gene that, when flawed, leads to distal muscular dystrophy (DD).

4 Oct 2004

Heart pump improves quality of life in congestive heart failure patients

The most seriously ill congestive heart failure patients live longer and have a better quality of life if implanted with a heart pump, researchers report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

17 Aug 2004

Pacemaker-type device and medicines reduce hospital stays and death rates

A nationwide clinical trial of more than 1,600 heart failure patients showed that when medicines are combined with the use of a pacemaker-type device that resynchronizes both sides of the heart, hospital stays and death rates drop significantly.

20 May 2004

Texan child receives world's first scaled-down heart pump or child ventricular assist device

A six-year-old Texas Children's Hospital patient is the first pediatric patient in the world to receive a MicroMed/DeBakey® child ventricular assist device (VAD), recently approved by the FDA for use in children. The new, scaled-down heart pump improves blood flow for patients awaiting heart transplants.

27 Mar 2004

Sleep apnea may be commonly misdiagnosed with hypertension

Patients with sleep apnea may be commonly misdiagnosed with hypertension, says a study published in the March issue of CHEST, the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Chest Physicians. In the study, one-third of patients with sleep apnea who were physician-diagnosed with hypertension actually had "white coat hypertension" (WCH), a condition characterized by an increase in blood pressure during a doctor's office visit and normal blood press during all other situations.

20 Mar 2004