Cardiovascular - June 2013 Archives

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXOEeZAVtvw&feature=youtu.be&hd=1 Alyssa Sandeen, 23, of Mankato, Minn., received a heart transplant on Thursday, June 27; she has been hospitalized at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., since November 2012. “We are very happy for her, to get this second chance – this gift of life,” said Alyssa’s dad, Chris Sandeen, less than 24 hours after her transplant. This is Alyssa’s second heart transplant. She received her first heart transplant when she was 8 years old. At age 19, she received a kidney from her mother, Lisa. Richard Daly, M.D., Alyssa’s heart transplant surgeon, said today that Alyssa’s new heart is working well and her vital signs are very good. He cautioned, though, that it is too early to make predictions on her recovery. Dr. Daly and Alyssa’s parents expressed gratitude to the family of Alyssa’s donor. “Without organ donors, Alyssa wouldn’t be here,” Chris Sandeen said. “We are so grateful.” Many people across the world have been following Alyssa’s story on her Facebook page, Alyssa Sandeen Is A Blessing and her family will update followers on the page, as well as Alyssa’s CaringBridge page.   Journalists: The next media update will be posted the week of Monday, July 1.  Sound bites with Chris Sandeen are in the downloads. B-roll and sound bites from an interview with Alyssa taped in Feb. 2013 are also available in the downloads

In a world where some research findings take a decade or more to surface in the world of patients, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is trying to whittle that time of translation down to a single year. That includes several rounds of preclinical studies and then a phase one clinical trial to determine efficacy by the end of the twelve months.  Jordan Miller, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic researcher in surgery and physiology, says, “This is highly significant, not only because of the speed of the process, but the impact that it may have on prolonging lives. We have a year to determine if there’s a positive change in experimental models and in patients. If so, we move on with more studies.” Mayo Clinic is one of only nine awardees of a new type of research grant, one that takes an existing but unused drug from a participating pharmaceutical company and studies it for a different disease or condition.  

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: I just read that the treadmill stress test is no longer recommended. What’s the reasoning behind this? I’ve had the test before, and it seems like a good way to find heart problems. ANSWER: A treadmill stress test can be helpful if a doctor suspects someone has heart problems or if a person is at high risk for heart disease. However, this test is no longer recommended for people at low risk for heart disease who do not have symptoms. For that group, the test is not needed because assessing risk factors such as age, smoking, cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes and family history has been shown to be nearly as effective in identifying an individual’s potential for heart disease. A treadmill stress test gathers information about how well your heart works as you exercise. Because exercise makes your heart pump harder and faster than it does during most daily activities, the test may be able to reveal problems within your heart that might not be noticeable otherwise.

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In the largest study of its kind, Mayo Clinic researchers found that people who have obstructive sleep apnea – when a person stops breathing ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIrgp_d7zmA Mayo Clinic is announcing the first stem cell clinical trial for pediatric congenital heart disease in the United States. The trial aims to determine ...