Spontaneous coronary artery dissection

The Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta’s Dr. Sarah Weeks, Cardiologist, was recently interviewed in Global TV’s Healthbeat segment. Dr. Weeks spoke about spontaneous coronary artery dissection, which can happen in the third trimester of pregnancy or soon after delivery. Click the picture or the link below to watch (it is the second story in the segment about 60 seconds in – segment will start after a short commercial on the Global TV site):

NOTE – Global TV videos are only posted for five days – this clip is no longer available as of April 29th.

Read / watch other stories featuring Dr. Sarah Weeks, who is also a spokesperson for the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Alberta, NWT & Nunavut.

Manitoba family’s thank-you to Mona Libin CICU

A thank-you to the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta’s Mona Libin CICU. Article scanned from the Calgary Herald:

Original on-line at the Canada.com network can be found at – LINK (second item – under the heading ‘Hospital Staff Great’)

Libin HRIC construction nearing completion

As some of the members and staff of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta will already know, our new basic science labs on the ground floor of the Health Research Innovation Centre are virtually ready to go! While a formal opening of the space has not yet been announced, rumblings have it that move-in planning is already under way. On some recent reconnaissance, the following images were obtained:

HRIC and TRW

Ground floor sign

Basic Science Lab

Tyberg Lab

Gillis Lab

Fedak Lab

HRIC South – conference room

HRIC North – conference room

HRIC North – office

HRIC North – core hallway

2009-10 HSF Grants-in-Aid

The Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta would like to congratulate its members who have received new Grants-in-Aid from the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Alberta, NWT & Nunavut in the 2009-10 cycle.

Todd Anderson – Ischemic post conditioning in ST elevation myocardial infarction

Morley Hollenberg – Tyrosine kinases, proteinases, their receptors, vascular diversity and vascular function

Gary Kargacin – Ion channels of the sarcoplasmic reticulum

Justin MacDonald – Smoothelin like-1 interaqcts with apo-calmodulin and tropomyosin to regulate Ca2+-dependent contractile signaling in vascular smooth muscle cells

Marc Poulin – Regulation of cerebral blood flow in obstructive sleep apnea

Congratulations!

CV MRI in Myocarditis: A JACC White Paper

The Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta’s Dr. Matthias Friedrich, Director of the Stephenson Cardiovascular MR Centre, is lead author of a major paper published in the April 28th 2009 edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. It is the first ever White Paper published by the Journal – a new category of articles that is to provide guidance in cardiovascular areas, which are still evolving but require expert consensus on diagnostic or therapeutic strategies. In this case, the topic is myocarditis, which is the inflammation of the myocardium (muscular tissue of the heart).

PRESS RELEASE – CLICK HERE
CALGARY PROTOCOL ADOPTED WORLDWIDE

JACC Editor-in-Chief Dr. Anthony DeMaria in discussion with the Libin Institute's Dr. Matthias Friedrich, Director, Stephenson CMR Centre

Interview of Dr. Friedrich by Dr. DeMaria – LINK

Global TV – LINK (will play after ad)

Interview of Dr. Friedrich by Dr. Kris Chadee, Canada Reserach Chair in Gastrointestinal Inflammation

Abstract of the CV MRI in Myocarditis White Paper – LINK

Brief bio of Dr. Matthias Friedrich – LINK

Stephenson Cardiovascular MR Centre at the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta (including research areas and training opportunities) – LINK

Coverage on Breakfast TV blog – LINK

Coverage on UCalgary – LINK

Coverage on Medicine.UCalgary – LINK

Coverage on CTV – LINK

Pass or Fail? ARB for Atrial Fibrillation Recurrence

The Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta’s Dr. Anne Gillis, Professor of Medicine, a scholar of the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research and the Medical Director of Cardiac Pacing and Electrophysiology, wrote an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine on the topic of Angiotensin-Receptor Blockers for Prevention of Atrial Fibrillation.

New England Journal of Medicine editorial by Dr. Gillis – LINK

New England Journal of Medicine – study by Marcello Diertori et al. – LINK

MedPage Today interviewed Dr. Gillis on this study, and on her comments in the editorial. Following is an excerpt:

But these results, from the first large, prospective randomized trial, “appear to provide strong evidence that valsartan (Diovan) and possibly other ARBs do not prevent the recurrence of atrial fibrillation in this patient population,” she said.

Since only 7.9% of study participants had heart failure or left ventricular systolic dysfunction — a population that might have benefited most, according to earlier studies — the results from this trial can’t be extrapolated to those patients, Dr. Gillis added.

To read the rest of the article, and also to hear a recording of an interview with Dr. Gillis, go to MedPage Today – LINK

Additional coverage:

Forbes – LINK
(include quotes from Dr. Anne Gillis)

Heart Wire – LINK
(include quotes from Dr. Anne Gillis and Dr. D. George Wyse)

Cardio Brief – LINK
(include quotes from Dr. Anne Gillis)

Health News – LINK
(include quotes from Dr. Anne Gillis)

Depression could increase heart failure risk

The Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta’s Dr. Jonathan Howlett, Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Department of Cardiac Sciences, was recently interview on Canada AM. Dr. Howlett addressed a new study that has found people who suffer from heart diseases and then depression are at greater risk of having heart failure. To watch the interview, click the picture or link below (be patient, you’ll have to watch an advertisement first):

Canada AM Interview – LINK

Prior related stories include:

Karen Owen interviews Dr. Howlett on possibility of a heart failure epidemic

Replay – Libin Institute Grand Vascular Rounds presented by Dr. Howlett: Is there really a heart failure epidemic? Why heart failure may become a young person’s problem

Recent publications – April 14, 2009

Effects of exercise training on health status in patients with chronic heart failure: HF-ACTION randomized controlled trial.
Flynn KE, Piña IL, Whellan DJ, Lin L, Blumenthal JA, Ellis SJ, Fine LJ, Howlett JG, Keteyian SJ, Kitzman DW, Kraus WE, Miller NH, Schulman KA, Spertus JA, O’Connor CM, Weinfurt KP.
JAMA. 2009 Apr 8;301(14):1451-9.

Multicenter, randomized controlled trial among 2331 medically stable outpatients with heart failure with left ventricular ejection fraction of 35% or less. Patients were randomized from April 2003 through February 2007. Exercise training conferred modest but statistically significant improvements in self-reported health status compared with usual care without training. Improvements occurred early and persisted over time.

LINK

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Gender-Dependent Impairment of Cardiac Action Potential Conduction in Type 1 Diabetic Rats.
Shimoni Y, Emmett T, Schmidt R, Nygren A, Kargacin GJ.
Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2009 Mar 13.

Heart and vascular disease are serious complications of untreated diabetes, however females tend to be less at risk than males. This study describes mechanisms that may underlie development of cardiac arrhythmias in diabetes. These arrhythmias result from disruption of the normal patterns of conduction of the electrical wave in the heart. This disruption is less severe in diabetic females, presumably due to protective actions of estrogen.

Yakhin Shimoni: shimoni@ucalgary.ca

LINK

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Determination of apparent calcium affinity for endogenously expressed human sarco/endoplasmic reticulum calcium ATPase isoform, SERCA3.
Chandrasekera PC, Kargacin ME, Deans JP, Lytton J.
Am J Physiol Cell Physiol. 2009 Feb 18.

Controlling calcium in cells of the body is essential to almost all aspects of life. These studies highlight the distinct properties of a specialized calcium transport protein that is responsible for maintaining calcium balance to allow normal functioning of vascular endothelial cells, among other specialized cells of the body.

Jonathan Lytton: jlytton@ucalgary.ca

LINK

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Comparison of new measures of vascular function to flow-mediated dilation as a measure of cardiovascular risk factors.
Philpott AC, Lonn EM, Title LM, Verma S, Buithieu J, Charbonneau F, Anderson TJ.
Am J Cardiol 2009 (in press).

This paper evaluated various measures of blood vessel health. It demonstrated that a measure of the increase in blood velocity in the forearm in response to occluding blood flow for 5 minutes is closely associated with usual risk factors. This measurement may serve as a useful marker of the risk of heart attacks and strokes in individuals at risk of heart disease.

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Myosin, transgelin, and myosin light chain kinase: expression and function in asthma.
R. Léguillette, M. Laviolette, C. Bergeron, N. B. Zitouni, P. Kogut, J. Solway, L. Kashmar, Q. Hamid, A.-M. Lauzon.
American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. 2009; 179 (3): 194-204

An excessive decrease in airway luminal area via bronchoconstriction is one of the final pathways to asthma. However, very little is understood about the molecular mechanics of smooth muscle in airway hyper-responsiveness and asthma. Selective overexpression of airway smooth muscle genes in asthmatic airways leads to increased Vmax, thus contributing to the airway hyper-responsiveness observed in asthma.

LINK

Edema as a Very Early Marker for Acute Myocardial Ischemia

Hassan Abdel-Aty MD of the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, along with Libin colleagues Myra Cocker, BSc, Cheryl Meek, RN, John V. Tyberg, MD, PhD, and Matthias G. Friedrich, MD, has authored a study to be published in the April 7th 2009 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC).

Edema as a Very Early Marker for Acute Myocardial Ischemia – A Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Study

Objectives:

This study was designed to determine whether imaging myocardial edema would identify acute myocardial ischemia before irreversible injury takes place.

Conclusion:

We provide the first evidence that T₂-weighted cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging of edema detects acute ischemic myocyte injury before the onset of irreversible injury. T₂-weighted cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging may serve as a very useful diagnostic marker in clinical settings such as unstable angina or evolving infarction.

Complete abstract

Full text – J Am Coll Cardiol, April 7,2009; 53:1194-1201

Editorial – J Am Coll Cardiol, April 7, 2009; 53: 1202 – 1203

Story – about the article in Modern Medicine

Related:

Stephenson CMR Centre at the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta