RIDGEFIELD, Conn. and INDIANAPOLIS, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) today announced that the companies will support an American College of Cardiology (ACC) program focused on driving quality improvement in cardiology and addressing the latest research advances in the reduction of cardiovascular risk and cardiovascular mortality in people with type 2 diabetes. Despite recent advances, cardiovascular disease is still the leading cause of death associated with diabetes. Given that people with diabetes are two to four times more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than people without diabetes, cardiologists are treating more and more of the 30 million adults in the U.S. living with this condition who have experienced a cardiovascular event. Approximately 50 percent of deaths in people with type 2 diabetes worldwide and approximately two-thirds of deaths in people with type 2 diabetes in the U.S. are caused by cardiovascular disease. The new program will capture key learnings from cardiologists who are managing cardiovascular risk for people with type 2 diabetes and identify how and why these healthcare professional innovators are leading this challenge. The learnings will be shared with the wider cardiology community to help prepare them for their increasingly important … Continue reading →

There's never been a better time to be treated for a heart attack. U.S. hospitals have set a record for how quickly they open blocked arteries, averaging under one hour for the first time since these results have been tracked. More than 93 percent of patients now have their arteries opened within the recommended 90 minutes of arrival. "Things have definitely improved" from a decade ago, when less than half of heart attack patients were treated that fast, said Dr. Fred Masoudi, a University of Colorado cardiologist who led a recent report examining response times. It's based on records from about 85 percent of U.S. hospitals that do the artery procedure, angioplasty . Through a blood vessel in the groin or an arm, doctors guide a tube to the blockage causing the heart attack. They inflate a tiny balloon to flatten the clog, and leave behind a mesh tube called a stent to prop the artery open. The sooner blood flow is restored, the less chance of permanent damage. "It's one of the few things in medicine where time, literally seconds, is of the essence. It's where the phrase 'time is muscle' comes from," said Dr. Ajay Kirtane, director of … Continue reading →

Posted on 7/27/2017 MORGANTOWN, W.Va. Partho Sengupta, M.D., director of Cardiovascular Imaging and chair of the Center for Innovation at the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute, has been additionally promoted to chief of the Section of Cardiology in the Heart and Vascular Institute and in the WVU School of Medicine Department of Medicine. In just a short time at WVU, Dr. Sengupta has shown that hes a true Mountaineer a person who understands our purpose and our people, and who is committed to our patients, residents, and students, Clay Marsh, M.D., vice president and executive dean of WVU Health Sciences, said. We are lucky to have him, and Im grateful that hes willing to take on this new level of responsibility. We welcome Dr. Sengupta as section chief of cardiology and are already benefiting from our collaborative work with him that has helped us enhance our learners experiences on the cardiology services, Arif R. Sarwari, M.D., chair of the WVU School of Medicine Department of Medicine, said. Since his arrival, Dr. Sengupta has been warmly embraced by all faculty and staff as he has immersed himself in the clinical operations of cardiology through his signature style of grace and collaboration, … Continue reading →

The American Heart Association (AHA) has awarded Benjamin L. Prosser, PhD, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, its Outstanding Early Career Investigator Award. The AHA gave him the award to recognize his work on how to improve cardiac function in heart failure patients, according to a July 26 press release. He presented it earlier this month at the Councils 2017 Basic Cardiovascular Sciences meeting in Portland, Oregon. His research demonstrated that by softening the internal cytoskeleton of heart cells in patients with heart failure, they could make their heart beats stronger. In other research published last by Prosser, he found that in a study on rodents, microtubules provide sufficient, but not excessive resistance in health heart muscle. The findings were published in Science. Prosser earned his bachelors degree in health and exercise from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and his PhD in molecular medicine from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in College Park. Go here to read the rest: AHA recognizes Penn Medicine cardiology researchers - Cardiovascular Business … Continue reading →