Department of Medicine Archives
Study finds certain genetic test not useful in predicting heart disease risk
Feb. 27, 2020—A Polygenic Risk Score — a genetic assessment that doctors have hoped could predict coronary heart disease (CHD) in patients — has been found not to be a useful predictive biomarker for disease risk.
Potential new heartburn drug studied at VUMC
Feb. 26, 2020—An investigational drug that binds bile acids in the stomach can reduce the severity of heartburn symptoms in patients with treatment-resistant gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) when combined with a proton pump inhibitor (PPI), a new study suggests.
Post-transplant diabetes may be reversible: study
Feb. 20, 2020—Post-transplantation diabetes mellitus (PTDM), a common complication of immunosuppressive drugs that are given to prevent transplant rejection, may be reversible and at least partially preventable, researchers at VUMC report.
Nashville VA dialysis unit named in Stone’s honor
Feb. 13, 2020—The Nashville Veterans Affairs Medical Center has dedicated its dialysis unit to William Stone, MD, a nephrologist and professor of Medicine at VUMC
Powering H. pylori pathogenesis
Feb. 6, 2020—Timothy Cover and colleagues report new insights into the sources of energy used by a bacterial “machine” linked to the pathogenesis of stomach cancer.
Team tracks integrin’s role in lung function
Feb. 6, 2020—Beta-1 integrin, a critical component of epithelial extracellular matrix receptors, is essential for normal lung function in adulthood, researchers at VUMC have discovered.
Five things to know about China’s coronavirus outbreak
Feb. 5, 2020—Vanderbilt infectious diseases specialist Thomas Talbot, MD, MPH, answers questions about the current novel coronavirus outbreak in China.
HDL-cholesterol and breast cancer risk
Jan. 23, 2020—Genetic analyses suggest that high circulating HDL-cholesterol levels may increase breast cancer risk — a surprising finding since increased HDL-cholesterol is thought to be healthy.
VUMC tops in nation for number of heart transplants performed last year
Jan. 16, 2020—Vanderbilt University Medical Center tied for first place as the busiest heart transplant program by volume in the United States in 2019.
VUMC study to use artificial intelligence to explore suicide risk
Jan. 15, 2020—Investigators will use computational methods to shed light on suicidal ideation and its relationship to attempted suicide, predict suicidal ideation and suicide attempt using routine electronic health records (EHRs) and explore the genetic underpinnings of both.
Vanderbilt-led team discovers new genetic disease and defines underlying mechanism
Jan. 13, 2020—An international research team has discovered a new genetic syndrome caused by mutation of a single gene and named it CATIFA, an acronym for its core symptoms.
Protein dynamics in the beating heart
Dec. 16, 2019—To study the dynamics of structural proteins in the heart, Vanderbilt investigators generated a cellular tool they expect will be useful for screening drugs that affect heart muscle contraction.
