heart disease

Jianjun Guan, an engineer at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, is developing a new material that would deliver drugs directly to the damaged part of the heart to preserve the support network.

Obesity and excess weight, and their negative impact on health, have become a significant focus for health-care experts in recent years. But new research at Washington University School of Medicine shows that an escalation in the number of those considered obese or overweight in the U.S. continues, signaling an ongoing upward swing in chronic health conditions as well.

A deficiency of vitamin D has been linked to Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, two illnesses that commonly occur together and are the most common cause of illness and death in Western countries. Now, new research in mice led by the School of Medicine’s Carlos Bernal-Mizrachi suggests vitamin D plays a major role in preventing the inflammation that leads to Type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis.

New research suggests that widely used statin therapy provides the most benefit to patients with the highest genetic risk of heart attack. Using a relatively straightforward genetic analysis, the researchers, including Nathan O. Stitziel, MD, PhD, assessed heart attack risk independently of the traditional risk factors.

A new study suggests uric acid may play a role in causing metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors that increases the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. The work also demonstrates the importance of the intestine in removing uric acid from the body, opening the door to potential therapies for preventing or treating type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

One in three American adults has high blood pressure. Jessica Wagenseil, DSc, associate professor of mechanical engineering, is investigating how mechanical properties of the cardiovascular system contribute to this widespread disease.

Chronic kidney disease sufferers are more likely to die of heart disease than kidney problems. However, it hasn’t been clear how kidney disease causes heart disease or what could be done to stop it. But a new study at the School of Medicine led by Keith A. Hruska, MD, has pinpointed the cause of a kidney-related syndrome linked to heart disease and found how to neutralize a protein that spurs heart disease.

A panel of experts, including researchers from the School of Medicine, is recommending that depression be added to obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and smoking as a cardiac risk factor.​

The School of Medicine now offers genetic testing to help diagnose and treat patients with heart disorders that can lead to sudden death. The new test, offered though the school’s Genomics and Pathology Services (GPS) and developed in collaboration with Washington University cardiologists, analyzes genes linked to arrhythmias and cardiomyopathies.

Teens who were depressed as children are far more likely than their peers to be obese, smoke cigarettes and lead sedentary lives, even if they no longer suffer from depression. The research, by scientists at the School of Medicine and the University of Pittsburgh, suggests that depression, even in children, can increase the risk of heart problems later in life.