News

Megan Hangyal, an ultrasound sonographer who works at the Center for Advanced Medicine in South County, was celebrating with family and friends at Arnold Days when the crowd around her began to panic. As some fellow attendees asked if medical professionals were present, Megan snapped into action.

The team in the Cardiac Diagnostic Lab, located on the Barnes-Jewish campus, have won a 2025 QUEST (Quality, Excellence and Safety Team) award. This BJH award recognizes contributions made to improve organization performance and quality of care through the use of process and outcome measures. The CDL submission, CDL Echo Capacity and Workflow Optimization, also reflected goals of the BJC Heart & Vascular Growth Initiative.

Phillip S. Cuculich, MD, Professor of Medicine in the Cardiovascular Division and his fellow Co-Director of the Center for Noninvasive Cardiac Radioablation, Clifford Robinson, MD presented the keynote address at the Presidential Symposium of the 2025  American Society for Radiation Oncology Conference.

From the earliest understanding of the body’s circulatory system to today’s groundbreaking treatments, the practice of heart and vascular medicine has continuously evolved in the search for new and better ways to protect and preserve the heart’s essential functions. Specialists at the Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Heart & Vascular Center are at the vanguard of this evolution, discovering new treatments and advancing compassionate care.

Doxorubicin has been a mainstay in cancer treatment for more than 50 years. Sometimes called “red devil chemo,” it is potent and effective against many cancer types. But it comes with a major downside — increased risk of severe heart failure, even decades after successful cancer treatment.Now researchers led by WashU Medicine cardiologist Ali Javaheri, MD, PhD, have identified a type of immunotherapy that prevents and treats the heart muscle damage caused by doxorubicin, based on their findings in human heart tissue, cell lines and mouse models of heart failure. The study appears in the journal Circulation.

“These medications are saving lives,” said Anubha Agarwal, MD, assistant professor of medicine of cardiology and co-director of the program in global cardiovascular health at WashU Medicine in St. Louis. “There is not a financial incentive to produce them, which is an issue in high-income countries like the US and the UK.”