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When a blocked artery causes a heart attack, tissue in the region of the heart served by that blood vessel quickly starts to die. Today, most patients survive an acute heart attack, but there are downstream health implications for these serious cardiac events. Scar tissue that forms in the weeks and

On August 24, 2011, Dr. Robert Roberts, Heart Institute President and CEO, welcomed the Government of Ontario’s commitment to fund detailed plans, renovations and the construction of a new building extension that provides five storeys of additional space to the Heart Institute. The extension will

A research team at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute led by biochemist Yves Marcel, PhD, Director of the Heart Institute’s High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL) Biology Laboratory, has discovered a new function for a known cellular pathway: mobilization and exportation of cholesterol from cells. The

It takes time and nurturing to grow a top-flight hospital. The University of Ottawa Heart Institute, which began largely as an extension of the Ottawa Civic Hospital when its doors first opened in 1976, has matured to become Canada’s foremost cardiovascular centre. Superior expertise in surgical

A recent conference in Washington, D.C., on cardiovascular research technologies hailed the success of life-saving strategies for emergency heart attack patients who suffer ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). The Beat spoke about recent developments in these strategies with Dr. Michel Le May

It was the very uniqueness of the gene that first drew the attention of molecular biologist Patrick Burgon, PhD. “The striking thing about this gene is that it has no other family members,” he said. “That’s what drove my curiosity.” The gene is muscle enriched A-type lamin interacting protein, or

Together, cardiovascular patients with physicians, nurses, educators, physiotherapists and an ever-growing health care team are part of an alliance making a significant investment in managing one of the most serious chronic conditions—cardiovascular disease.

The 9p21 risk variant is the strongest known common genetic risk factor for heart disease in Caucasians and Asians. Beginning with the discovery of 9p21 in 2007, studies have consistently shown that having one copy of a genetic variation in 9p21 increases a person’s risk of heart disease by 15 to 20

In the largest-ever collaborative study of its kind, a team of cardiovascular genetics researchers from around the world have identified 13 new genetic variants associated with coronary artery disease (CAD). This finding more than doubled the number of genetic variants known to impact risk for CAD

Obesity rates have grown to such an extent over the past several years that normal-weight individuals are now a minority in Canada. The problem gets worse with age: 16 per cent of adults ages 20 to 39 are obese, while fully one-third, or 33 per cent, of their counter-parts ages 60 to 79 fit that