Cardiology News & Articles

1 Nemaline Myopathy With Dilated Cardiomyopathy in Childhood Pediatrics, May 9, 2013
Gatayama R et al. - A case of a 9-year-old boy with nemaline myopathy and dilated cardiomyopathy. The combination of nemaline myopathy and cardiomyopathy is rare, and this is the first reported case of dilated cardiomyopathy associated with childhood-onset nemaline myopathy. A novel mutation, p.W358C, in ACTA1 was detected in this patient. An unusual feature of this case was that the patient’s cardiac failure developed during early childhood with no delay of gross motor ...

2 MicroRNA-146a is a therapeutic target and biomarker for peripartum cardiomyopathy The Journal of Clinical Investigation, May 6, 2013
Halkein J et al. - Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is a life-threatening pregnancy-associated cardiomyopathy in previously healthy women. Although PPCM is driven in part by the 16-kDa N-terminal prolactin fragment (16K PRL), the underlying molecular mechanisms are poorly understood. These results demonstrate that miR-146a is a downstream-mediator of 16K PRL that could potentially serve as a biomarker and therapeutic target for PPCM.

3 Sudden Cardiac Arrest in a Young Patient with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy and Zero Canonical Risk Factors: The Inherent Limitations of Risk Stratification in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Congenital Heart Disease, May 8, 2013
Kohorst JJ et al. - Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the most common heritable cardiovascular disease and a common cause of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in young adolescents and athletes. Clinical risk stratification for SCD is predicated on the presence of established risk factors; however, this assessment is far from perfect. Herein, the authors present a 16-year-old male who was resuscitated successfully from his sentinel event of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. ...

4 Sudden Cardiac Death in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology, April 18, 2013
O’Mahony C. et al.- This study focuses on Sudden Cardiac Death in Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is a common disorder of cardiac muscle associated with sudden cardiac death (SCD). HCM is defined by increased left ventricular wall thickness or mass, in the absence of abnormal loading conditions to account for the observed abnormality. In most adults, the disease is inherited as an autosomal dominant trait and is caused by mutations in ...

5 Pediatric Heart Transplantation for Congenital and Restrictive Cardiomyopathy Annals of Thoracic Surgery, May 8, 2013
Murtuza B et al. - Recent reports suggest worse outcomes in pediatric orthotopic heart transplantation (OHT) for congenital heart disease (CHD) and restrictive cardiomyopathy (RCM). The authors examined early outcomes in these diverse groups of patients in comparison with patients with dilatated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Equivalent outcomes are achievable in pediatric OHT despite marked heterogeneity in anatomic and physiologic complexity in recipients. Physiologic factors such as PHT are ...

6 Virus detection and semi-quantitation in explanted heart tissues of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy adult patients using PCR coupled with mass spectometry analysis Journal of Clinical Microbiology, May 23, 2013
N'Guyen Y et al. - Viral detection in heart tissues has become a central issue for the diagnosis and the pathogenesis exploration of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDCM). The PCR-MS analysis appeared to be a valuable tool to rapidly detect and semi-quantify common virus in cardiac tissues and may be of major interest to better understand the role of viruses in unexplained cardiomyopathies.

7 Resolution of left bundle branch block-induced cardiomyopathy by cardiac resynchronization therapy JACC - Journal of the American College of Cardiology, February 13, 2013
Vaillant C et al. - The study sought to describe a specific syndrome characterized by isolated left bundle branch block (LBBB) and a history of progressive left ventricular (LV) dysfunction, successfully treated by cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). These observations support the existence of a specific LBBB-induced cardiomyopathy resolved by CRT. Its prevalence, time course, and risk factors need to be prospectively studied. Methods Between 2007 and 2010, 375 ...

8 All-cause mortality and cardiovascular outcomes with prophylactic steroid therapy in duchenne muscular dystrophy JACC - Journal of the American College of Cardiology, February 13, 2013
Schram G et al. - The aim of this study was to determine the impact of steroid therapy on cardiomyopathy and mortality in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). In patients with DMD, steroid therapy is associated with a substantial reduction in all-cause mortality and new-onset and progressive cardiomyopathy. Methods Authors conducted a cohort study on patients with DMD treated with renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system antagonists with or ...

9 The Clinical Significance of Anti-Beta-1 Adrenergic Receptor Autoantibodies in Cardiac Disease Clinical Reviews in Allergy and Immunology, February 7, 2013
Nussinovitch U et al. - The authors review the current knowledge relating to anti-beta-1 adrenergic receptor antibodies: their potential role in heart diseases and the potential benefits of a targeted therapy against their apparently destructive effects. Patients with dilated cardiomyopathy with circulating stimulatory anti-beta-1 adrenergic receptor autoantibodies are probably at a higher risk for adverse outcome and should be treated with adrenergic receptor ...

10 The role of right ventricular function in paediatric idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy Cardiology in the Young, February 5, 2013
Groner A et al. - The authors evaluated recently published right ventricular function echocardiographic indices in identifying dysfunction in children with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy and the impact of right ventricular dysfunction on long-term prognosis. Right ventricular dysfunction is under-recognised in children presenting with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. The need for clinical circulatory support and left ventricular ejection fraction z-score less than ...