Clinical trials, medical studies performed on people, are held to high standards. The researchers running them endeavour to include a diverse group of participants, both men and women. Trial participants are randomly assigned to the treatments being compared, and trial staff measuring the outcomes...
Search
Displaying 181 - 200 of 234
Despite major advances in technology and treatment over the past several decades, cardiovascular disease is still the leading cause of death in the world. In fact, cardiovascular illness has continued to increase at an epidemic rate globally despite a general reduction in age-related mortality over...
Drugs and devices approved for the Canadian market must undergo extensive clinical testing to prove their safety and effectiveness. But even the best-designed clinical trials are limited in the time they can follow patients and how closely their participants resemble the general population. Once a...
When Robert Roberts, MD, joined the University of Ottawa Heart Institute as President and CEO in 2004, he came with a mandate: establish the Institute as a world leader in cardiovascular genetics research. “Over the past 50 or so years, the data have been pretty consistent that somewhere around 50...
The American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association have named the RAFT trial among the top 10 research advances in heart disease in 2010. Led by the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, RAFT showed cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is effective in reducing the risk for death...
Blood Test Identifies Those at Risk for Heart Attack Knowing an individual’s specific risk of heart attack could significantly impact his or her medical care as well as willingness to adopt a healthier lifestyle. A blood test now available in the United States has been shown to do just that. The...
To coincide with coverage of the Canadian Women’s Heart Health Summit, this edition of “Rapids Beats” is dedicated to news related to women and heart disease. Why Women Are Less Likely to Receive Statin Therapy Statin drugs, which lower cholesterol, are equally effective in men and women at...
The holiday season has come and gone. So, while we’re still honouring our New Year, New Me mantra, lets revisit our most popular stories from last year. Health podcast helps listeners be “heart-wise” It’s March 2021: The Heart Institute’s Division of Cardiac Prevention and Rehabilitation releases...
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...
The University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI) and the UOHI Foundation have established a $1M research chair to improve care and experiences for hundreds of thousands of patients who require life-saving heart surgeries and procedures each year. The J. Earl Wynands Associate Chair in Cardiac...
Roughly half of our risk of getting heart disease is due to our genetics. The other half is due to age, lifestyle and other environmental factors. Of the genetic half, some of the risk comes from rare genetic variants that have a big impact on a person’s individual risk. Some comes from the additive...
A research team at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute led by biochemist Yves Marcel, PhD, Director of the Heart Institute’s High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL) Biology Laboratory, has discovered a new function for a known cellular pathway: mobilization and exportation of cholesterol from cells.
For decades, researchers have known that the brain controls the diameter of the peripheral arteries, the vessels that carry blood to the arms, legs, hands and feet. Electrical impulses from the brain travel to these arteries through a network of nerves known as the sympathetic nervous system...
You have seven minutes, Dr. Chow. You may begin. Dr. Benjamin Chow was told he had seven minutes to pitch his idea. Seven minutes to describe and convey the importance of a groundbreaking medical technique. To explain how using it would improve access to healthcare for thousands of heart patients in...
Our editorial team is working from home to bring you a series of articles about the coronavirus. In this article, the fourth and final issue in our series, we acknowledge and thank our community for their support and donations of hand-sewn masks during the pandemic. Hospitals around the world are...
The Heart Institute will hold its second annual Sharing is Caring cardiac rehabilitation research event on Thursday, February 27. Patients, families, caregivers, and community members are invited to take part.
Our editorial team is working from home to bring you a series of articles about the coronavirus. This article, about a breakthrough innovation that can decontaminate used surgical masks, is the first in the series. N95 surgical face masks are an example of personal protective equipment used to...
A recent study of close to 200,000 men and women found that shorter people are at higher risk of coronary artery disease than their taller counterparts, with every 2.5-inch (6.35-cm) change in height affecting their level of risk by 13.5%. This means that, if you are 5 feet tall, your risk of...
A good night’s sleep restores energy, improves performance and generally makes you feel better. Getting the right amount of sleep is also important for good heart health. A South Korean study of more than 47,000 adults found that people who sleep about seven hours a night have significantly fewer...
A recent study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal suggests smartphone technology is diagnostically more accurate than traditional physical examination techniques to assess blood flow in arteries found in the wrist. The study was conducted at the University of Ottawa Heart...