Heart attack or bad gas?

The Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta‘s Dr. Eldon R. Smith OC was recently quoted in the Globe and Mail. The article asks the question, heart attack or bad gas? His comments highlighted that there is little that is black or white …

Article: Heart attack or bad gas?

excerpt:

Calgary cardiologist Eldon Smith, a former dean of medicine at the University of Calgary, wasn’t all that reassuring when I spoke to him about baby boomers and chest pains. Diagnosing heart disease is such an inexact science, he told me, that “cardiologists can find no evidence of heart disease and a patient can still die within two months.” Oh, great.

As for those stress tests – I had one and aced it – Dr. Smith says he has heard of doctors who gave patients full cardio workups, including a stress test, declared them fine “and the patient dies before leaving the laboratory.” Stop, Doc, you’re killing me.

Of course, there are facts that will tell the examining doctor a lot, including what you were doing when you first felt the pain. “If you were walking quickly uphill and the pain was there, but it subsided when you stopped, that’s pretty good evidence” that there may be underlying heart problems, Dr. Smith said.

He recently led a steering committee responsible for developing a new strategy to fight heart disease in Canada, and is more interested in drumming heart-healthy lifestyle practices into all of us, including being physically active, not smoking, maintaining a good weight, eating fruits and vegetables and less salt, regularly checking cholesterol levels, and – if you’re over 50 – taking an aspirin a day.

Read other blog posts about Dr. Smith – Click Here

Salt: Hard to Shake

The Globe and Mail recently took on the issue of salt intake in a feature, Salt: Hard to Shake. The series featured Libin Institute Member, Dr. Norm Campbell, Canadian Chair of Hypertension Prevention and Control, referring to his expertise in several articles. Links and excerpts have been provided below.

Article one: Ask a doctor – Dr. Norm Campbell

Hosted by the Globe and Mail, this was an on-line session with Dr. Campbell taking some thoughtful and challenging questions from the public.

Article two: Under Pressure

excerpt:

Five million Canadians have high blood pressure. Norm Campbell, a medical professor at the University of Calgary, says that simply reducing dietary sodium to nearer recommended amounts would eliminate one case in five.

“It’s almost negligent we haven’t done something about this before,” says Dr. Campbell, who was named the first Canadian Chair in Hypertension Prevention and Control by a group including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in 2006.

Article three: The taste of things to come

excerpt:

But based on events [Dr. Campbell] observed in Britain, which has embarked on an aggressive national sodium-reduction campaign, the divide between what the medical community wants and what industry wants could be wider than it seems.

There, Dr. Campbell said many food companies said they would have difficulty meeting the voluntary salt-reduction targets published by the British Food Standards Agency. The Salt Association, which represents salt producers in that country, has also dismissed the new targets as “scientifically unsound,” and said that they could compromise food safety.

Article four: How Canada is losing the war on salt

excerpt:

“Sodium is a hidden, silent killer in our food supply. It’s contributing to the deaths of tens of thousands of people every year but we are largely disregarding this problem in public policy,” said Norm Campbell []. “There is an urgent need for action.”

Hotchkiss and Libin Institutes share in $3M+ Award to UCalgary

The Hotchkiss Brain Institute and the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta will be in receipt of significant funding, as part of a recent Canadian Atherosclerosis Imaging Network (CAIN) CFI grant worth over $21M in total. The University of Calgary is the only CAIN site in Western Canada.

Link to Complete UCalgary Faculty of Medicine story

Excerpts:

The Canadian Atherosclerosis Imaging Network (CAIN) has been awarded a multi-million dollar National Platforms grant from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI)-and over $3 million of that will be given to the Calgary site which is one of CAIN’s five principle centres.

<snip>

As part of the new funding, Calgary will lead the development of the cerebrovascular and cardiovascular MR core facilities, which will be jointly headed by Dr. Richard Frayne, a professor in the Departments of Radiology and Clinical Neurosciences; and by Dr. Matthias Friedrich, associate professor in the Departments of Cardiac Sciences, Medicine, and Radiology. Calgary will also be the beneficiary of a dedicated, high speed computer linkage between it and the other four CAIN centres in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and London, Ontario. Calgary’s funding will benefit clinical research activities in the Hotchkiss Brain Institute and the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta, as well as within the Departments of Cardiology, Clinical Neurosciences and Radiology.

Link to Complete UCalgary Faculty of Medicine story

Current Canadian Atherosclerosis Imaging Network (CAIN) projects:

• Project 1: Magnetic resonance imaging characterization of carotid plaque and prediction of end-organ and clinical outcomes.
• Project 2 Imaging vulnerable plaque: Histological validation
• Project 3: Correlation between coronary and carotid atherosclerosis disease and links with clinical outcomes

More information on CAIN – Click Here

Stephenson Cardiovascular MR Centre – Click Here

Libin Members Bag CDA and KFOC Grants

The Kidney Foundation of Canada / Pfizer Canada – Cardio-Renal Research Award for 2009 has been awarded to Dr. John V. Tyberg (PI), along with co-investigators Dr. Ellen Burgess and Dr. Rodger Loutzenhiser. The award, valued at up to $150,000, supports cardio-renal research that hopes to address the cardiovascular complications of kidney disease. Congratulations team!

Grant title: “Renal hemodynamics: possible implications for hypertension“

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The Canadian Diabetes Association has awarded an operating grant to Dr. Matthias Friedrich, Director of the Stephenson Cardiovascular MR Centre at the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta.  The application ranked 6th out of 50 in the ‘excellent’ category. Kudos all around!

Grant title: “Novel imaging-derived biomarkers for the early detection of diabetic cardiomyopathy“

Media Article Highlights Calgary CMR Research

Toronto Physician Dr. Ken Walker (under the pen name name Gifford-Jones) recently wrote an article wherein research conducted by Myra Cocker of the Stephenson Cardiovascular MR centre at the Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta was highlighted.

Myra Cocker, Stephenson CMR Centre at the Libin Cardiovascular Institute

Have a read:

Myra Cocker, a researcher at the Stephenson Cardiovascular Centre in Calgary, has been using imaging techniques to study athlete’s hearts.

It was hoped she and her colleagues would discover why some athletes in superb condition suffer sudden cardiac arrest and die.

What they found was equally alarming.

Forty-eight Olympic calibre athletes with a mean age of 32 years were enlisted in the study.

They were involved in swimming, cross-country skiing, skating and marathon running. Contrast-enhanced cardiovascular magnetic resonance scans were then done on the athletes. In addition, the same study was carried out on eight others in good health, but who were not involved in a training schedule.

This study showed that 75 per cent of the elite athletes had myocardial fibrosis (scarring of the heart’s muscle). They also had large ventricles (chambers of the heart).

At the moment it’s not known what effect this finding will have on longevity. But they believe this scarring will prevent them from ever becoming world champions regardless of how hard they train. Just 13 per cent of the control group had this condition.

Read the rest – Click here

You can read more about the results of Myra’s research in a Medical Post article from earlier this year (login required)

Libin Institute’s Newest EP Lab

Contributed by John Clapp:

Opening in October 2009, and replacing a 13 year old fluoroscopy only imaging system, Electrophysiology will realize the benefit of a significant technological upgrade with the new Philips XPer FD 10/10 biplane Cardiovascular System for it’s diagnostic and interventional procedures.

The Philips system features an integrated single host concept called EP Cockpit that integrates x ray generation, system geometry and user interface with EP related peripheral components, image detection and viewing. This is accomplished, reducing the number of cables, keyboards , and monitors, with OMNISWITCH, connecting up to 8 medical equipment systems.

Philips XPer FD 10/10 biplane Cardiovascular System

Another feature of the system is EP Navigator, enabling users to segment previously acquired 3D CT data sets into 3 dimensional volumes of the heart. These data sets overlay with live fluoro x ray images of the same anatomy in order to support catheter/device navigation during specified procedures.

We are all looking forward to the roll out of this amazing room and the ways in which it will benefit the citizens of Calgary and surrounding area.

Libin HRIC Spaces Officially Open!

The Libin floor of the Health Research Innovation Centre at the University of Calgary officially opened June 1st 2009. This milestone was marked by an event hosted by the Reach! campaign through which several private donors have contributed to make this floor a reality.

Photo credit: Bruce Perrault

Excerpts from UCalgary Medicine coverage:

“This new area brings us into a close proximity with one another, and science often advances through the serendipitous conversations you have in the hallways just by running into your colleagues. Having

everyone in this type of working atmosphere and environment is going to lead to great things.”

Layout aside, the Libin Institute’s new digs are about 33% larger than their old space and contains three impressive new labs to aide in their continued research endeavours; the Marlene and Don Campbell Family

Cardiac Research Laboratory; the King Family Experimental Arrhythmia Laboratory; and the Derek H. Haworth Laboratories.

<snip>

“The laboratories in the HRIC are dedicated to advancing our knowledge

base regarding the origins and mechanisms of cardiovascular health and disease,” says Mitchell. “These advances are then the subject of clinical science directed towards improving the cardiovascular health of the population of Alberta, Canada and beyond.”

Click here to read the rest.

Photo credit: Bruce Perrault

Related media coverage:

Click here to read the article in the Calgary Sun

Click here to watch the Global TV coverage (2nd story in the video clip)