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Once again, the University of Ottawa Heart Institute had more than 40 clinical and research presentations on the program at the annual American Heart Association Scientific Sessions. These, along with other major developments in the world of cardiovascular medicine, made for a lively conference. New

Some of the biggest news to come out of AHA this year was the results from preliminary clinical trials of two new LDL cholesterol-lowering drugs that show a substantial decrease in LDL levels well below the reductions seen with statins or ezetimibe alone. The new drugs belong to a class called PCSK9

Several Heart Institute staffers offered their expertise in invited talks touching on a broad range of topics. Scientist Erik Suuronen, PhD, uses tissue engineering techniques to develop methods for regenerating damaged heart muscle. In his presentation, called “The Matrix: Stem Cell Delivery

The use of stem cells for regenerating damaged heart tissue offers great potential, but many technical questions remain. Understanding which cell types are most beneficial and how they should be employed is a central issue. Several clinical trials involving stem cells were presented at AHA. Two were

Successfully managing heart failure is one the looming issues for cardiovascular medicine, with prevalence expected to grow significantly over the coming decades. The plenary session “Engineering Success in Heart Failure” looked at where things are headed, from therapy to devices to delivery of care

Five years ago, the University of Ottawa Heart Institute launched the Heart Wise Exercise (HWE) program in the national capital to both assist people with heart disease and prevent its onset. The program has since broadened its mandate to prevent or limit the effects of living with a chronic health

On July 26 this past summer, two cardiologists at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute implanted a defibrillator. Nothing out of the ordinary, you would think. It is something they do almost daily to provide lifesaving therapy for patients at risk of sudden cardiac death. But this was out of the

“We have a long way to go to cure heart disease.” This is the view of Dr. Peter Liu, the recently appointed Scientific Director at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. Despite the state-of-the-art care available today, doctors are yet to restore a patient’s heart and blood vessels to their

Somewhere between traditional cardiologists and cardiac surgeons sit interventional cardiologists. Like surgeons, interventionists get blood on their gowns in the process of correcting structural problems of the heart, but their approach is more subtle and less invasive. Spending their days in the

Interventional cardiologists at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute are championing broad-based innovation by using catheter-based procedures to treat a variety of conditions. This gallery highlights a minimally invasive procedure, called TAVI (transcatheter aortic valve implantation), for