Tag: Sharlene Day

Overweight HCM Patients Fare Worse

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This week, researchers from the eight HCM centers comprising the Sarcomeric Human Cardiomyopathy Registry [SHARE Registry] published a paper that every HCM patient should take to heart.

The sobering findings are that overweight HCM patients have a higher incidence of obstruction, heart failure and atrial fibrillation than their normal weight counterparts. As a result of this study, the researchers suggest heightened attention to weight management and exercise in order to prevent disease-related progression and complications.

Continue reading “Overweight HCM Patients Fare Worse” →

The High Hanging Fruit: Treatment for Non-Obstructive HCM – Commentary by Dr. Sharlene Day

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A recent study conducted in the U.K. evaluated whether the anti-anginal drug trimetazidine would improve symptoms and exercise capacity for those patients with non-obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. 

Unfortunately, this study which was conducted by Dr. Perry Elliott and his colleagues at University College London, found that trimetatazidine did not improve exercise capacity in these patients. Following the results of this study, trimetazidine will now join ranolazine and spironolactone in the compost heap of drugs which tried and failed to improve HCM symptoms.  While a third drug, perhexiline, was found to improve symptoms for non-obstructive HCM, its limitations, including potentially serious side effects, stand in the way of its common usage.

In a companion editorial to this study entitled “Non-Obstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy-the High Hanging Fruit,” Dr. Sharlene Day of the University of Michigan’s HCM Center discusses the difficulties seen in drug trials related to non-obstructive HCM.

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Newest HCM Research Focuses on Exercise

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Two articles published this week highlight how attitudes relating to exercise and HCM have changed in recent years.  Older recommendations that HCM patients should refrain from exercise appear to be outdated.

The first article, an editorial published in Circulation by Drs. Sara Saberi and Sharlene Day from the University of Michigan’s HCM Center, reviews the statistics relating to sudden death of athletes and questions the long held notion that participation in vigorous activity or competitive sports is dangerous in HCM.  This editorial also points out that moderate exercise is the only non-surgical intervention proven to increase exercise capacity in patients with HCM.

See this HCMBeat interview with Drs. Saberi and Day for more details about their groundbreaking study.

A second article from researchers in Australia used the number of a patient’s steps per day as an indicator of HCM disease severity and the patient’s functional limitations.

It seems that the time has come for HCM patients to get up off their couches and get moving!

RESET-HCM: Rethinking Exercise for HCM Patients – Interview with Dr. Sara Saberi and Dr. Sharlene Day

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Editor’s note: This is our first interview feature on HCMBeat.  In the future, we hope to feature more interviews with other HCM researchers who have published articles of interest to the HCM community.  

By now, you have probably already heard the buzz about RESET- HCM – a study about the effects of exercise on HCM patients conducted by Dr. Sara Saberi and Dr. Sharlene Day at the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Clinic of the University of Michigan’s Frankel Cardiovascular Center in collaboration with Dr. Matthew Wheeler and Dr. Euan Ashley of Stanford’s HCM Center. The findings were presented at the American College of Cardiology Conference on March 17, 2017 held in Washington D.C. and were the subject of this feature on HCMBeat. 

Recently, Cynthia Waldman of HCMBeat had the opportunity to sit down with Drs. Saberi and Day for a detailed conversation (over Skype) about the study.  What follows is a transcript of their conversation (which has been edited for readability).

Continue reading “RESET-HCM: Rethinking Exercise for HCM Patients – Interview with Dr. Sara Saberi and Dr. Sharlene Day” →