Specifically they found that the drug reduced ejection fractions and left ventricular outflow tract gradients in certain of the 101 individuals who participated in their Phase 1 trials.
The next step for the drug is to try to duplicate these findings in Phase 2 trials which will commence later this year.
A recent study followed 14 patients carrying one of two known genes associated with HCM (MYBPC3 and MYH7) over a 10+ year period . At the time of gene identification, none of the patients shown clinical evidence of hypertrophy. Over the time span of the study, 3 patients, who were then adults, had developed signs of HCM. Hence, the study suggests that periodic screenings are necessary for gene positive individuals throughout adulthood.
According to Cardiomyopathy U.K., the researchers undertook this project due to the lack of information and guidelines available to patients who are gene positive but have no outward signs of the disease.
A recent article in Science Daily discussed findings of geneticists in the Netherlands which revealed the existence of a mutation in the gene alpha-kinase 3 (ALPK3) which, if inherited from both parents, may cause severe cardiomyopathy in children.
Cardiomyopathy U.K. recently featured this story on their website.
See here for study.
Could this minimally invasive procedure prove to be a viable alternative to septal myectomy or alcohol ablation for septal reduction?
Doctors at Minneapolis Heart Institute are planning a larger, multi-center trial to test the viability of this procedure as a larger scale treatment for HCM.
According to a recent article in the British Cardiac Society’s Heart, HCM patients have a higher complication rate associated with unrelated non-cardiac surgeries than non-HCM patient undergoing similar procedures. Hence, HCM patients undergoing surgery should receive increased attention during and after surgery.
More than 1/3 of deaths were due to HCM, which was almost four times more common in males than females. Deaths in minorities were almost 5 times greater than in whites.
The complete study will be published in October in The American Journal of Medicine.
According to an article in the Wall Street Journal citing a recent study in the Annals of Internal Medicine, African-Americans with ICDs were 14% more likely to have complications than white patients with implantable defibrillators, and while women with ICDs were 16% more likely to have complications than men with implantable defibrillators.
The sex-based differences were attributed to the fact that women are generally diagnosed with heart disease later than men, and the fact the device testing process largely omits women, while the race-based differences were less clear, but may have resulted from diminished access to health care by African-American patients.
According to a recent study by doctors in Australia and New Zealand, unexplained sudden cardiac deaths in children and adolescents can often be explained through the use of genetic testing.
According to a recent study published June 20 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, more than 1/3 of patients in atrial fibrillation are not receiving sufficient anti-coagulation. Many of these patients are receiving only aspirin instead of a more effective blood thinner like warfarin, or one of the newer anti-coagulant drugs like Pradaxa or Xarelto.
This story is fascinating. Dr. Andrew Morrow, a cardiac surgeon at the National Institute of Health from 1953 until his death in 1982, was a HCM patient himself. Dr. Morrow was the first surgeon to do myectomy surgery. According to the article, Dr. Morrow was diagnosed by his colleague, Eugene Braunwald, at approximately the same time he pioneered myectomy surgery.
HCM Beat 