LOS ANGELES – Physicians and researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, will be presenting information on a wide variety of topics at the American College of Cardiologists’ (ACC) 51st Annual Scientific Session and the ACC Interventional Symposium in Atlanta from March 17 through 20. Topics include acute coronary syndromes, atrial fibrillation, imaging protocols, pregnancy and heart disease, urgent vascular conditions, and clinical trials.
PEPTIDE VACCINE
Cedars-Sinai cardiac researchers, working in collaboration with Swedish investigators, have developed a novel vaccine to prevent plaque buildup in genetically engineered mice with high cholesterol levels. Abstracts of their results are being presented from 3 to 5 p.m. Monday, March 18 at the American College of Cardiology’s annual scientific session in Atlanta.
SOY AND ISOFLAVONES FOR PRIMARY PREVENTION (COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES
C. Noel Bairey-Merz, M.D., director of Cedars-Sinai’s Preventive and Rehabilitative Cardiac Center and director of the Women’s Health Program, will discuss Soy and Isoflavones for Primary Prevention during a symposium on Complementary and Alternative Therapies that begins at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 19. In two other Tuesday sessions, she will present information on improving preventive cardiology and treating complex lipid disorders.
HEART DISEASE IN WOMEN
She will also co-chair a symposium on heart disease in women on Wednesday, March 20, beginning at 8:30 a.m.
AZACS STUDY
Bojan Cercek, M.D., will unveil the results of a major clinical trial during the Late-Breaking Clinical Trials I session on Monday, March 18 from 9:15 to 10:30 a.m. This trial tests whether antichlamydial antibiotic therapy with Azithromycin would reduce risk of recurrent heart attack in 1440 high-risk patients. The study was fully funded by the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Division of Cardiology and a grant to Dr. P.K. Shah from the Steven S. Cohen Heart Fund, now known as the Heart Fund at Cedars-Sinai.
YOUNG INVESTIGATORS AWARD COMPETITION
Two postdoctoral research fellows in cardiac electrophysiology at Cedars-Sinai have qualified as finalists in the ACC’s Young Investigators Award competition. They and other finalists will present findings of studies before a panel of judges who will decide the award winner.
Hui-Nam Pak, M.D., will report that mesenchymal stem cell transplantation results in cardiac nerve sprouting, the growth of heart nerves. Akira Hamabe, M.D., will present research showing that rapid electrical stimulation in the left atrium results in sustained atrial fibrillation and cardiac sympathetic nerve sprouting. Both of these studies were conducted in animals and in collaboration with other physicians and faculty at Cedars-Sinai, UCLA, USC and Children’s Hospital, Los Angeles.
The ACC’s 51st Annual Scientific Session and the ACC Interventional Symposium are being held in Atlanta from March 17 through 20. Additional information is available at the ACC Web site at http://www.acc.org/2002ann_meeting/home_02.htm.
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is one of the largest non-profit academic medical centers in the Western United States. For the fifth straight two-year period, Cedars-Sinai has been named Southern California's gold standard in health care in an independent survey. Cedars-Sinai is internationally renowned for its diagnostic and treatment capabilities and its broad spectrum of programs and services, as well as breakthrough in biomedical research and superlative medical education. Named one of the 100 "Most Wired" hospitals in health care in 2001, the Medical Center ranks among the top 10 non-university hospitals in the nation for its research activities.
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