Low testosterone may increase risk of COVID-19 hospitalization for men (Links to an external site)
Among men diagnosed with COVID-19, those with low testosterone levels are more likely to become seriously ill and end up in the hospital than men with normal levels of the hormone, according to a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Saint Louis University School of Medicine.
The team analyzed the cases of 723 men who tested positive for COVID-19, mostly in 2020 before vaccines were available. The data indicate that low testosterone is an independent risk factor for COVID-19 hospitalization, similar to diabetes, heart disease and chronic lung disease.
Dr. Stacey Rentschler and Colleagues Receive NIH Grant to Fund Study on Radiation Therapy for VT Patients
Stacey Rentschler, MD, PhD in collaboration with many other Washington University researchers within and outside the cardiovascular division recently received an NIH grant totaling over $3 million to further study a major breakthrough in a non-invasive treatment for ventricular tachycardia. The grant follows a 2021clinical study from Washington University School of Medicine brought together cardiologists, […]
Wide Complex Tachycardia Discrimination Tool Improves Physician’s Diagnostic Accuracy
A new study published in the Journal of Electrocardiology this month by Washington University Physician Adam May shows that an automated tool for WCT differentiation can improve the accuracy of the physician interpreting ECGs.
New Clinical Trial for Evoque Valve Comes to Valvular Heart Disease Center
Dr. Alan Zajarias and the team at the Valvular Heart Disease Center have been invited to join the Edwards Triscend 2 pivotal trial, testing the safety and effectiveness of the Evoque valve device in patients with tricuspid regurgitation. The Evoque tricuspid valve replacement system is designed to use an implant to replace the native tricuspid […]
New Drug, Positive Results for Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (Links to an external site)
An estimated 1,000,000 people in the U.S. have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Washington University interventional cardiologist Richard Bach, MD, FACC, and his team had exhausted non-invasive treatments for a patient suffering from HCM. Until, that is, Bach enrolled the man, who was in his 50s, in a clinical trial evaluating a drug called mavacamten.
Leadership Announcement – DOM Vice Chair of Clinical Research (Links to an external site)
It is my pleasure to announce that Dr. Nancy K. Sweitzer, Professor of Medicine, has joined Washington University School of Medicine as the Vice Chair of Clinical Research for the Department of Medicine and Director of Clinical Research for the Division of Cardiology. Dr. Sweitzer joins us from the University of Arizona in Tucson, where she had been the Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine, Director of the Sarver Heart Center and Co-Director of the Clinical Translational Sciences Graduate Program for the University of Arizona Health Sciences.
Cardiovascular inflammation, heart failure focus of $6 million grant (Links to an external site)
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have received a $6 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to harness new understandings of the immune system to develop innovative therapies for heart failure and the prevention of organ rejection following heart transplantation.