News

WashU Medicine researchers including Cardiovascular Divison’s Kory Lavine, MD, PhD have received two grants from the NIH to study the roles of troponin — a critical protein in the heart — in various forms of heart failure.

For more than a decade, St. Louis Magazine has hosted its annual Excellence in Nursing Awards, spotlighting the remarkable efforts of nurses in a special print issue each year. Throughout the years, the magazine has recognized more than 500 outstanding nurses across a wide range of practice areas and levels of expertise, from emerging leaders to those with decades of experience. From the Cardiovascular Division, we are proud to recognize two of our outstanding nurses, Tonya Becker of Electrophysiology and Sharon Heuerman of Clinical Research, who are finalists.

February, a month traditionally associated with love, also brings attention to something equally vital: heart health. Recognized as Heart Health Awareness Month, February is dedicated to raising awareness about cardiovascular diseases (CVD), which continue to be the leading cause of death worldwide. Join us in highlighting the importance of heart health and taking steps to prevent CVD.

Scientists have designed an immunotherapy that reduces plaque in the arteries of mice, presenting a possible new treatment strategy against heart disease. The antibody-based therapy could complement traditional methods of managing coronary artery disease that focus on lowering cholesterol through diet or medications such as statins, according to the findings of a new study led by researchers at the Lavine Lab at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Layne Helmering and her family lost their son Nicholas last year to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. A high school senior and captain of his debate team, Nicholas passed away suddenly in his sleep. In the wake of this tragic loss, Nicholas’s debate team held a fundraiser, coming together to raise awareness of HCM, a disease of the heart muscle that makes it harder for the heart to pump blood to the rest of the body.

Mass General Brigham researchers and collaborators from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health pooled data from 99 countries and 810,635 adults to determine how many people worldwide may benefit from GLP-1 use. They found more than one in four adults would be eligible for GLP-1s for weight management, with women, older individuals, and low- and middle-income countries among the most eligible. These critical metrics could be formative in policy development to deploy GLP-1s around the world to tackle obesity and its comorbidities. Their results are published in a research letter in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.