News Archive

Starting heart failure patients on the compound sacubitril/valsartan instead of enalapril after they have been discharged from the hospital led to an improvement in biomarkers of heart stress, according to a study led by the DCRI. The finding, from an additional analysis of a study called PIONEER-HF, described changes in a heart failure biomarker called NT-proBNP when switching from enalapril to sacubitril/valsartan.

Care for older adults with heart failure can be optimized using a four-domain framework including medical, mind, physical function, and social environment. About 5.7 million adults in the United States and at least 26 million worldwide have heart failure. Heart failure is the number one cause of hospitalization in older adults, accounting for $123 billion per year in Medicare spending.

New research shows that although racial disparities have diminished in recent years, gender disparities are still common.

Only approximately half of patients with chronic kidney disease and atrial fibrillation were treated with oral anticoagulants (OACs), and this proportion decreased significantly as kidney disease became more severe.

High-sensitivity troponin, an assay that is relatively new in the U.S., allows providers to assess low-risk chest pain patients more quickly and determine whether they have had a heart attack or myocardial infarction.

Less than 10 percent of the treatment recommendations U.S. doctors rely on to manage care for heart patients are based on evidence gained from multiple large, randomized clinical trials — the gold standard for obtaining scientific data. In fact, the proportion of well-supported recommendations for heart care has actually declined compared to 10 years ago, when an earlier analysis found a similar dearth of rigorous studies supporting treatment guidelines. The latest study, led by the DCRI, appears online March 15 in JAMA.

Catheter ablation, a common cardiovascular procedure, appears no more effective than drug therapies in preventing strokes, deaths, and other complications in patients with atrial fibrillation. However, patients who get the procedure experience much greater symptom relief and long-term improvements in the quality of life, including  fewer recurrences of the condition and fewer hospitalizations, than those who get only drugs. The findings are from two new studies published in the March 15 issue of JAMA.

The DCRI’s David Leiman, MD, MSHP was selected as one of 18 participants in this year’s AGA Future Leaders Program.

The university ranked 9th in the United States among similar institutions.

Research conducted by the Pediatric Trials Network (PTN) has led the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to update the prescribing information, or drug label, of acyclovir to include dosing for infants with Neonatal Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV). The DCRI has acted as the coordinating center for the PTN since 2010 when it received its original funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).