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When a blocked artery causes a heart attack, tissue in the region of the heart served by that blood vessel quickly starts to die. Today, most patients survive an acute heart attack, but there are downstream health implications for these serious cardiac events. Scar tissue that forms in the weeks and

Jim Orban, the new President and CEO of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute Foundation, is ready for his next significant milestone – a major construction project that will add a five-storey extension along with badly needed renovations to the existing 35-year-old facility. The Foundation, the

It was the very uniqueness of the gene that first drew the attention of molecular biologist Patrick Burgon, PhD. “The striking thing about this gene is that it has no other family members,” he said. “That’s what drove my curiosity.” The gene is muscle enriched A-type lamin interacting protein, or

A recent conference in Washington, D.C., on cardiovascular research technologies hailed the success of life-saving strategies for emergency heart attack patients who suffer ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). The Beat spoke about recent developments in these strategies with Dr. Michel Le May

The advances in cardiac care over the past half century can perhaps be reflected in a single statistic: in the late 1960s, the death rate for patients admitted to hospital with a heart attack was more than 40 per cent. Today, at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, it is less than 4 per cent

Together, cardiovascular patients with physicians, nurses, educators, physiotherapists and an ever-growing health care team are part of an alliance making a significant investment in managing one of the most serious chronic conditions—cardiovascular disease.

Editor’s Note: In the previous issue of The Beat, senior management responsible for clinical care at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute offered a wide-ranging discussion of the state of cardiovascular medicine in “ The Changing Cardiovascular Landscape.” Many of the themes and trends raised

Obesity rates have grown to such an extent over the past several years that normal-weight individuals are now a minority in Canada. The problem gets worse with age: 16 per cent of adults ages 20 to 39 are obese, while fully one-third, or 33 per cent, of their counter-parts ages 60 to 79 fit that

In the largest-ever collaborative study of its kind, a team of cardiovascular genetics researchers from around the world have identified 13 new genetic variants associated with coronary artery disease (CAD). This finding more than doubled the number of genetic variants known to impact risk for CAD

The 9p21 risk variant is the strongest known common genetic risk factor for heart disease in Caucasians and Asians. Beginning with the discovery of 9p21 in 2007, studies have consistently shown that having one copy of a genetic variation in 9p21 increases a person’s risk of heart disease by 15 to 20