Division of Cardiovascular Medicine

From left, Huan Tao, MD, PhD, Sean Davies, PhD, Jiansheng Huang, PhD, and MacRae Linton, MD, led the study that identified a potential new treatment for atherosclerosis.
August 20, 2020

‘Scavenger’ molecule may point to new atherosclerosis treatment

A small-molecule “scavenger” that reduces inflammation and formation of atherosclerotic plaque in blood vessels in mice potentially could lead to a new approach for treating atherosclerosis in humans, according to researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

By Bill Snyder
August 13, 2020

Study suggests new threshold for diagnosing PAH

Doctors diagnosing pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) — elevated pulmonary pressure due to an issue in the small vessels of the lung — rely on a hemodynamic threshold set in the early 1970s to determine whether patients would be candidates for pulmonary vasodilator therapy.

By Matt Batcheldor
Heart patient Ronnie Kreis is monitored by VHVI doctors while he’s at his home in East Tennessee.
July 30, 2020

Device allows VHVI doctors to monitor heart patients remotely

In 2018, Ronnie Kreis began to develop severe heart failure. After being hospitalized multiple times that year near his home in Oliver Springs in East Tennessee, he was told that nothing else could be done.

By Matt Batcheldor
July 27, 2020

Soy food, metabolism and the microbiome

Consumption of soy foods may shape the microbiome and protect against hypertension only in individuals with soy-responsive microbiota, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered.

By Sarah E. Glass
June 24, 2020

Study finds zinc doesn’t reduce mortality, other health risks, for heavy alcohol users living with HIV/AIDS

Zinc supplementation did not reduce mortality, cardiovascular risk, levels of inflammation or microbial translocation among people with heavy alcohol use living with HIV/AIDS, according to a Vanderbilt-led study.

By Matt Batcheldor
May 6, 2020

Ventricular assist device program hits major milestone

VHVI’s cardiac surgery and heart failure teams recently celebrated a milestone — implanting the 500th adult patient with a ventricular assist device.

By Matt Batcheldor
April 9, 2020

Research team awarded $9 million to study extracellular RNA in colorectal cancer

The NCI program project grant is supporting multiple projects that aim to define fundamental biological principles about extracellular RNA signaling and the development and aggressiveness of colorectal cancer, the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States.
By Leigh MacMillan
March 19, 2020

Race, hormones and diabetes risk

Variation in the levels of hormones called natriuretic peptides may contribute to racial differences in susceptibility to diabetes, suggesting that this hormone system may be a target for reducing risk of the disease.
By VUMC News and Communications
February 27, 2020

Study finds certain genetic test not useful in predicting heart disease risk

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.
By Matt Batcheldor
January 16, 2020

VUMC tops in nation for number of heart transplants performed last year

Vanderbilt University Medical Center tied for first place as the busiest heart transplant program by volume in the United States in 2019.
By Matt Batcheldor
January 9, 2020

Interim directors of Cardiovascular Medicine named

Dan Roden, MD, and Daniel Munoz, have been named interim directors of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
By Matt Batcheldor
December 20, 2019

Hepatitis C–positive donors a viable option to expand heart donor pool

Hepatitis C-positive heart donors offer a strategy to safely expand the donor pool and allow more patients to undergo transplant.
By Matt Batcheldor
December 16, 2019

Protein dynamics in the beating heart

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.
By Leigh MacMillan