RED ALERT: Study Finds Chinese Food Good for Your Heart
(Published 6-9-2008) A clinical study on patients who have suffered a heart attack found that a partially purified extract
of Chinese red yeast rice, Xuezhikang (XZK), reduced the risk of repeat heart attacks by 45%, revascularization (bypass surgery/angioplasty),
cardiovascular mortality and total mortality by one-third and cancer mortality by two-thirds. The multicenter, randomized,
double-blind study, was conducted on almost 5,000 patients, ranging in age from 18-70 over a five-year period at over 60 hospitals
in the People's Republic of China. Corresponding author David M. Capuzzi, M.D., Ph.D, director of the Cardiovascular Disease
Prevention Program at Jefferson's Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine and Zonliang Lu, M.D., Ph.D, from the Fuwai Hospital
at the Chinese Academy of Medical Science report their findings in the June 15th edition of the American Journal of Cardiology.
Study Finds It Pays to be Heart Smart if Considering Hormone Therapy
(Published 5-22-2008) A research study has found that a simple blood test may indicate whether post-menopausal hormone therapies
present an elevated risk of a heart attack. The study, part of the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), sponsored by the National
Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, was conducted in 40 centers nationwide and included
271 cases of coronary heart disease in the first four years of the trials of estrogen alone and of estrogen plus progestin.
Corresponding author Paul F. Bray, M.D., the Thomas Drake Martinez Cardeza Professor of Medicine, Director, Division of Hematology
at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and his co-authors report their findings in the June 1st edition
of the American Journal of Cardiology.
Signaling Protein Helps Limit Damage in Heart Attack, Jefferson Scientists Show
(Published 3-18-2008) Scientists at the Center for Translational Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia have
shown that a specific signaling protein is crucial to protecting the heart and helping it to adapt during a heart attack.
Jefferson, Children’s Hospital Boston Researchers Show Another “Smart” Cancer Drug Can Have Toxic Effects on the Heart
(Published 12-13-2007) Another FDA-approved targeted cancer drug, sunitinib (SutentTM, Pfizer), may be associated with cardiac
toxicity, report researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston) and Thomas Jefferson University.
Jefferson Receives Medicare Approval for its Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Center
(Published 7-2-2007) The Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Center at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital has
become one of only 96 adult and six pediatric heart transplant centers in the nation approved by Medicare.
Fat Protein Protects Blood Vessels from Inflammation, May Help Heart Disease, Jefferson Scientists Find
(Published 6-1-2007) A natural substance secreted by fat cells can protect blood vessels from the damaging effects of inflammation,
one of the factors that contribute to heart disease. Researchers at Jefferson Medical College have shown for the first time
in an animal model that the substance – a protein called adiponectin – helps prevent immune system white blood cells from
binding to the inside of blood vessel walls. Harnessing adiponectin’s properties, the scientists suggest, may someday help
protect against the blood vessel damage so prevalent in patients with obesity and diabetes.
Jefferson Scientists Use Gene Therapy to Reverse Heart Failure in Animals
(Published 5-23-2007) Heart researchers at the Center for Translational Medicine at Jefferson Medical College have used gene
therapy to reverse heart failure in animals. In addition, they found that this gene therapy strategy had “unique and additive
effects” to currently used, standard heart failure drugs called beta-blockers.
Bare-Metal Stents are Better for Some Heart Patients, Jefferson Scientists Find
(Published 5-11-2007) While drug-eluting stents are effective in keeping open diseased heart arteries, they should not be
used for patients who need to have non-cardiac surgery a short time after an interventional heart procedure. A presentation
at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions in Orlando by cardiologists at Jefferson Medical College indicates
that for these patients, bare metal stents provide a safer choice.
Jefferson Researchers Report Heart Care at High-Volume Hospitals May Matter More to African American Patients(Published 5-11-2007) African American patients who undergo heart bypass surgery (CABG) in high-volume hospitals have more
benefit than white patients, according to a new study by researchers at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.
Jefferson Scientists Confirm that Drug-Eluting Stents May Not Be For All Clogged Heart Vessels
(Published 5-10-2007) Physicians know that drug-eluting stents are an effective way to ensure that a patient’s arteries will
remain open after balloon angioplasty. They also know that these devices have their limits—especially in keeping open bypassed
vein grafts with longer blockages. It is for these vessels, researchers at Jefferson Medical College say, that physicians
should consider alternative treatment strategies.
Jefferson Researchers Warn that Combining Common Blood-Thinning Therapies After Coronary Angioplasty May Cause a Deadly Problem
(Published 5-4-2007) Physicians should examine the risk factors—for example, whether the patient is likely to experience a
stroke—before giving patients undergoing interventional heart procedures a combination of anti-blood clotting therapies, according
to a study from Jefferson Medical College.
Jefferson Researchers Want to Learn If Heart Defect “At Heart” of Some Migraines
(Published 4-19-2007) Researchers of the heart and headaches at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital are combining efforts
to determine if a common heart defect may be the cause of some forms of migraine headaches. Investigators from the Jefferson
Heart Institute and the Jefferson Headache Center are enrolling participants in a blinded study to determine if closing a
Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO), a small hole or flap that can allow blood to flow between the right and left sides of the heart,
can stop migraines. In newborns, the PFO closes at or shortly after birth, but in 20 percent of adults the gap remains open
to some degree.
Surgeons at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital are First in Pennsylvania to Implant Jarvik 2000 Heart Assist System in Heart
Failure Patient
(Published 3-23-2007) On Monday morning, March 19, cardiac surgeons Scott Silvestry, M.D. and Linda Bogar, M.D. at Thomas
Jefferson University Hospital opened the chest of a 55-year-old man suffering from chronic heart failure and implanted a Jarvik
2000 Heart Assist System to save his life. The Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant team at Jefferson University
Hospital is the first in the state to implant the new device.
Jefferson Scientists Find that Drug-Eluting Stents Are Disappointing in Bypass Grafts--Sometimes
(Published 3-23-2007) While drug-eluting stents are effective in keeping open bypassed heart veins that aren’t too diffuse
(filled with cholesterol plaque), a new study by cardiologists at Jefferson Medical College shows that they fare less well
in keeping open bypassed veins with longer blockages. The researchers suggest that doctors think twice before inserting the
drug-coated stents in such extensively diseased bypassed grafts.
Jefferson Scientists Find that Plavix Appears to be Safe During and After Heart Bypass
(Published 3-23-2007) Heart surgeons don’t have to choose between taking a coronary-bypass patient off the popular anti-clotting
drug clopidogrel (Plavix) after off-pump heart bypass surgery or having the patient bleed excessively in the days following
surgery, according to a new study by researchers at Jefferson Medical College.
Jefferson Cardiologists Fix Broken Heart
(Published 1-8-2007) Unexplained chest pain after a heart attack might be more dangerous than many physicians originally think.
In a case study to be published in the January issue of the international journal Clinical Cardiology, physicians at Thomas
Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia report on a seemingly healthy 55-year-old man who had a silent heart attack
and subsequent unexplained chest pain.
Drug Effective in Reversing a Deadly Problem During Coronary Angioplasty, Jefferson Cardiologists Find
(Published 10-10-06) Researchers in the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Thomas Jefferson University have found that
nicardipine, a commonly available calcium channel blocker, is effective in reversing the ‘no-reflow’ phenomenon that affects
as many as 50,000 patients annually who undergo angioplasty—a procedure to clear arteries that have been clogged up or narrowed
by plaque.
Jefferson Researchers Find Potential Biomarker for Heart Failure
(Published 9-11-06) A team of cardiology researchers at Thomas Jefferson University has determined that GRK2, a protein that
plays an important regulatory role in heart failure, is elevated in patients with failing hearts when compared to patients
with normal heart function.
Featured in the Media
Local man has a great heart
(Published 7-13-06, Northeast Times) Three weeks ago, John McAroy, a 33-year-old heart transplant patient at Thomas Jefferson
University Hospital, received a heart through the Gift of Life Donor Program.
“His prognosis is excellent,” says Paul Mather, M.D., Director of the Advanced Heart Failure Center at Thomas Jefferson University
Hospital. “Young men aren’t supposed to get heart disease. Without modern technology, he wouldn’t have been alive. He was
able to get one great gift of life that a donor and his family gave.”
“For eight and a half months, the only people I saw the most were the nurses,” McAroy said. “They held my hand and said it
was going to be all right. I never doubted when I rolled into the operating room that I would open my eyes again. If you need
to be sick, this hospital is the place to be,” he said of Jefferson.
Media Coverage:
Northeast Times
Featured in the Media
Long walks made him ideal transplant recipient
(Published 7-07-06, Gloucester County Times) John McAroy a heart transplant patient at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
walked the halls of the fifth floor at Jefferson for eight and a half months waiting for a new heart. What seemed like little,
IV-attached steps, resulted in 115 pounds of weight loss and produced a body healthy enough for a heart transplant.
Paul Mather, M.D., Director of the Advanced Heart Failure Center at the Jefferson Heart Institute, said "John is the one and
only patient I have seen in 14 years, to make that kind of commitment to getting into the best shape possible for surgery."
Dr. Mather saw a great transformation by McAroy, describing him as "nearly dead" when he came in, but now one of the most
motivated people he has ever met.
"Everyone from the nurses to the cooking and cleaning staff were so wonderful to me," McAroy said. "When they said I was going
to get through something, I believed them. They took great care of me."
Media Coverage:
Gloucester County Times
