Latest cardiomyopathy Stories

Researchers say current European guidelines lead to many false positives, recommend including race-specific criteria Many athletes undergo cardiac screening to detect possible heart conditions before being allowed to participate in student or professional sports. Current European screening guidelines, which are based on data from white athletes, can lead to the over-investigation and potential false disqualification of healthy athletes of African or Afro-Caribbean descent, according to...

Some patients with advanced heart failure caused by cardiomyopathy, the deterioration of function of the heart muscle, are getting a new lease on life thanks to an innovative treatment program at Jewish Hospital, a part of KentuckyOne Health, and the University of Louisville. Led by Emma Birks, M.D., Ph.D., FRCP, director of the Jewish Hospital Heart Failure, Transplant and Mechanical Support Program, the program treats advanced heart failure patients who have left ventricular assist...

Children's Cardiomyopathy Foundation Endorses Bill To Identify Students At Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death TENAFLY, N.J., Feb. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Senators Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) introduced today during National Heart Month the Cardiomyopathy Health Education, Awareness, Risk Assessment and Training in the Schools (HEARTS) Act to the Senate. This life-saving legislation focuses on increasing awareness of cardiomyopathy and the risk...

Gene alterations that shorten the body's largest protein could improve diagnosis, treatment of dilated cardiomyopathy, a familial heart disease For decades, researchers have sought a genetic explanation for idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a weakening and enlargement of the heart that puts an estimated 1.6 million Americans at risk of heart failure each year. Because idiopathic DCM occurs as a familial disorder, researchers have long searched for genetic causes, but for most...

Mutations in TTN—the largest gene in the human genome—cause idiopathic (unknown cause) dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a common form of heart failure, according to a study by Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) researchers. The TTN gene encodes a protein that functions as a scaffold for assembly of contractile proteins in muscle cells and also regulates the production of force in cardiac muscle cells. Because of its enormous size, the TTN gene was, until recently, too difficult to...

Millions of people suffer from type 2 diabetes. The leading cause of death in these patients is heart disease. Joseph Hill and colleagues, at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, have now identified, through their work in mice, a potential new therapeutic approach to reduce the prevalence of heart failure and improve the long-term survival of patients with type 2 diabetes. Although diabetes-associated heart disease is caused by a multitude of factors, it is typified...

A drug used to treat multiple sclerosis may also be effective at preventing and reversing the leading cause of heart attack, a new study has found. Scientists found that Gilenya, a drug recently approved in the US for treating MS, was effective at reversing the symptoms of ventricular hypertrophy in mice. Ventricular hypertrophy is a fatal cardiac disorder that can result in an abnormal heart rhythm (arrhythmia) and cardiac arrest. It is caused by sustained pressure on the heart due to...

Scientific discovery sheds light on fundamental biological process Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have identified a finely tuned mechanism by which fetal heart muscle develops into a healthy and fully formed beating heart—offering new insight into the genetic causes of congenital heart disease and opening the door to one day developing therapies to fight this chronic and potentially fatal disorder. In a paper being published online today in Nature Genetics, researchers in the...

HAMPTON, N.J., Jan. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Ikaria, Inc., a critical care company focused on developing and commercializing innovative therapies for critically ill patients in the hospital and ICU settings, today announced that it has commenced its global development program, the PRESERVATION I clinical trial, for its Bioabsorbable Cardiac Matrix (BCM). The CE Mark registration trial has commenced in Australia, and will be followed in Europe. The trial also is expected to commence...

The law firm of Hissey Kientz, LLP is announcing the launch of its new Crestor website, Crestor Side Effects Lawyers (http://www.crestorsideeffectslawyers.com/). Recent studies have linked Crestor to a number of serious and possibly deadly side effects, including cardiomyopathy, kidney problems and diabetes. Austin, Texas (PRWEB) December 27, 2011 The law firm of Hissey Kientz, LLP is announcing the launch of its new Crestor website, Crestor Side Effects Lawyers...