While it is commonly thought that cardiovascular disease is a man’s disease, CVD is the number one killer of women with the same number of deaths per year as cancer, diabetes and respiratory disease combined (according to 2015 statistical data from AHA). In addition, women exhibit different and more silent symptoms of heart attacks. There … Read more
Since the first A-mode echocardiogram, there have been great revolutional changes and the use of noninvasive cardiac imaging has grown substantially during the past decade. Echocardiography and nuclear modality have been the primary imaging modalities for management in patients with different cardiovascular diseases. The introduction of cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR), computer tomography (CT), and three-dimensional … Read more
Shared decision making (SDM) is an approach both patients and clinicians can use to improve patient education and discussion in decision making. Decision aids are tools that promote SDM by improving patient-clinician communication about all treatment options and how the risks and benefits fit with their personal values and preferences. Today, we’ll chat about SDM … Read more
Among the various treatment regimens being investigated, cell therapies have achieved the furthest development in human medicine. With the paucity of donor organs and long-term immunosuppressive treatment, replacement of damaged cells within the cardiac tissue with stem or primary cells have offered hope to treat heart failure. The choice of cell type for this application … Read more
Every 80 seconds a woman dies from a heart attack or stroke. Once thought to be predominantly found in men, coronary heart disease remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality for women in the US and worldwide. There have been significant improvements in cardiovascular mortality in women in the last two decades with narrowing … Read more
When I first started my career as a scientist, I had no idea how much impact the immune system has on cardiovascular disease. I was under this naïve idea that disease progression was dependent on blood cholesterol levels, stress or genetics only, never realizing how much the immune system influenced cardiovascular disease. Now that I … Read more