Tag: arryhythmia

Categories : Cardiovascular DiseaseTags :

SA Heart Congress Unites Cardiologists for Better Care

On By ModernMedia

The SA Heart Annual Congress will take place from 8–10 November at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg. The three-day Congress, themed ‘Cardiology Connections,’ will promote collaboration and dialogue among local and international Cardiology professionals. The congress offers a unique platform for experts, practitioners, and researchers worldwide to share insights on the latest advancements and challenges in cardiovascular medicine.

The dynamic programme includes keynote speeches, panel discussions, workshops, and networking sessions. The agenda covers a comprehensive range of cardiology topics, designed to provide practical knowledge and inspire innovation in the field. Attendees will gain critical insights into the latest developments that have the potential to enhance patient care.

“We are excited to welcome a distinguished international and local faculty,” says Dr Ahmed Vachiat, SA Heart Congress Convenor. “At the core of SA Heart is the mission to advance cardiovascular care through education, research, and advocacy. By connecting healthcare professionals from across sectors, this Congress will drive forward our vision of improving cardiovascular care for all in South Africa. We are also grateful for the invaluable support of our local experts, whose contributions consistently uphold international standards of excellence.”

A significant focus this year is strengthening connections among various special interest groups, including the Society of Cardiovascular Interventions (SASCI), Cardiovascular Imaging Society of South Africa (CISSA), Cardiovascular Arrhythmia Society of South Africa (CASSA), Heart Failure Association of South Africa (HEFFSA), Intervention Society of Cardiovascular Allied Professionals (ISCAP), South African Society of Cardiovascular Research (SASCAR), and the Paediatric Society of Cardiology (PCSSA).

Joint sessions and interdisciplinary programmes will enable these groups to work together to enhance healthcare delivery for all patients in need of cardiac intervention and treatment. Workshops and scientific sessions will feature innovative learning approaches aimed at facilitating knowledge exchange and professional growth.

A cardiovascular team from the Mayo Clinic – Prof Vuyi Nkomo (Imaging Cardiologist), Prof Sorin Pislaru (Chair, Structural Heart Disease), and Dr Juan Crestanello (Chair, Cardiothoracic Surgery) – will conduct an echocardiography workshop and contribute to various specialist workshops on Friday morning, November 8th.

Dr Thomas Alexander, a respected interventional cardiologist based in India, will share insights on establishing STEMI networks in South Africa. Prof Stylianos Pyxaras from Germany and Dr Andrew Ludwiniec from the UK will discuss chronic total occlusions and complex coronary interventions. Prof Azfar Zaman and Prof Roy Gardner also from the UK and leaders in their field, as well as Prof Thierry Lefevre from France, will join esteemed local experts in addressing important cardiovascular topics.

A new addition to this year’s programme is the Imbizo on Rheumatology and Cardiac diseases. Over 40 Abstracts have been submitted and research sessions guided by SASCAR will be keeping delegates up to date with the latest in the field of Cardiology.

In addition, an excellent parallel paediatric programme will feature global leaders, Prof Krishna Kumar, from India and Prof McDaniel from the USA, with a pre-congress workshop and highly interactive sessions that will incorporate insights from local experts.

“This year, a Heartbeat Stage will feature insightful talks, engaging presentations, and a special networking address,” says Dr Vachiat. “We are honoured to have Dr Imtiaz Sooliman from Gift of the Givers, who will share his thoughts on ‘Connecting Hearts and Social Responsibility’.”

For more information, visit SA Heart.

Categories : Cardiovascular DiseaseTags :

Cough Suppressant Could Lead to New Arrhythmia Treatment

On By ModernMedia
Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

An over-the-counter cough suppressant can knock some heart cells out of arrhythmia, a discovery that could lead to a new treatment for long QT syndrome. The finding, which was published in Nature Cardiovascular Research, was made using stem cells from patients with the disorder.

The QT interval on an electrocardiogram (ECG) represents the duration of the ventricular action potential, and this physiologically correlates with the duration of the ventricular depolarisation and repolarisation. Cardiac events and fatal arrhythmias may occur when the QT interval is prolonged either congenitally or through acquired causes. In people with long QT syndrome, cardiac cells are not always ready to produce the next beat, a situation that can knock the heart out of its normal rhythm, which may be life-threatening. For many people with long QT, no treatment can correct the heart cells or prevent arrhythmia.

Using mice to investigate how human heart arrhythmias can be stopped is difficult, so Masayuki Yazawa, PhD at the University of Columbia, turned to patient-derived reprogrammed stem cells, which can be made into heart cells in the lab.

The road to the discovery began several years ago when Dr Yazawa found that heart cells in the lab would resume a normal rhythm when a certain enzyme was inhibited. But the drugs used to inhibit the enzyme also had other unintended effects, such as liver toxicity, so alternatives were needed.

Looking through published research, the team learned that the enzyme could be inhibited through an intermediary molecule inside heart cells called SIGMAR1. Further reading suggested that SIGMAR1 could be targeted by a cough suppressant, dextromethorphan.

Dr Yazawa’s team found that the cough suppressant, when added to heart cells, successfully prepared the heart cells for the next beat and soothed the cells’ irregular rhythm.

The cough suppressant reset heart cells from people with Timothy syndrome, a genetic disorder that also causes other heart abnormalities, and from people with more common forms of long QT syndrome.

Dr Yazawa cautioned that it’s premature to use dextromethorphan to treat long QT patients; the drug has a short half-life and would have to be used long term, which might still have unknown adverse side effects.

“But our study shows that drugs targeting SIGMAR1 have potential to treat a wide array of patients with long QT syndrome,” said Dr Yazawa, “and we will continue to look for better options.”

Source: Columbia University

Categories : Cardiovascular Disease GeneticsTags :

Prevalence of Cardiac Arrhythmia Risk Genes Greater Than Believed

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Source: Pixabay/CC0

By sequencing genes linked to cardiac arrhythmia risk in more than 20 000 people without an indication for genetic testing, scientists were able to identify possible pathogenic variants in 0.6% of individuals, according to a study published in Circulation.

This rate is higher than those previously reported, according to Carlos G. Vanoye, PhD, research associate professor of Pharmacology and a co-author of the study.

“This study suggests the prevalence of genetic susceptibility to cardiac arrhythmia may be underestimated,” Dr Vanoye said.

The American College of Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) currently recommends that incidentally discovered pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in 73 Mendelian disease genes be reported back to patients. This includes many genetic variants associated with congenital cardiac arrhythmias, causing irregular heartbeats which can lead to stroke or sudden cardiac death.

However, the pathogenicity of many genetic variants in these known arrhythmia genes is uncertain, and classification of these variants is still in the early stages.

“A person can carry a disease-causing gene variant but exhibit no obvious signs or symptoms of the disease,” Dr Vanoye said. “Because the genes we studied are associated with sudden death, which may have no warning signs, discovery of a potentially life-threatening arrhythmia gene variant can prompt additional clinical work-up to determine risks and guide preventive therapies.”

The current study used data from the Electronic Medical Records and Genomics sequencing (eMERGEIII) study. The eMERGEIII study investigated the feasibility of population genomic screening by sequencing 109 genes implicated across the spectrum of Mendelian (single inherited gene mutation) diseases in over 20 000 individuals, returning variant results to the participants, and using Electronic Health Record (EHR) and follow-up clinical data to ascertain patient phenotypes.

In the current study, investigators analysed 10 arrhythmia-associated genes in individuals without an indication for genetic testing.

The researchers determined the functional consequences of these variants of uncertain significance and used the data to refine the assessment of pathogenicity. In the end, they reclassified 11 of these variants: three that were likely benign and eight that were likely pathogenic.

In all, 0.6% of the studied population had a variant that increases risk for potentially life-threatening arrhythmia and there was overrepresentation of arrhythmia phenotypes among these patients. This is a rate higher than previously known for genetic arrhythmia syndromes (approximately 1 in 2000) and illustrates the potential for population genomic screening, Dr Vanoye said.

“Population genomic screening can positively affect public health. Many rare, disease-associated variants can be found this way which can then help determine the disease-risk of the carriers of these variants,” Dr Vanoye said. “Although the costs of genomic screening may be currently high, assessing patient risk followed up by clinical care would reduce the financial and emotional cost of the disease.”

Source: Northwestern Medicine