Home Telemedicine in Heart Failure: A Pilot Study of Integrated Telemonitoring and Virtual Provider Appointments.

Congestive heart failure is a significant cause of hospitalization, rehospitalization, and death. Reducing hospital readmission rates is a national priority. Various telemonitoring devices and programs have been developed to help meet this goal.

A case of contrast-induced pancreatitis following cardiac catheterization.

Coronary heart disease remains the leading cause of death of men and women in the United States. Angiography and percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) are an integral part in management of acute coronary syndromes. Well-defined complications of coronary angiography include allergic and anaphylactic reactions, vascular access complications, stroke, and contrast-induced kidney injury.

Role of cardiac myocyte CXCR4 expression in development and left ventricular remodeling after acute myocardial infarction.

Rationale: Stromal cell-derived factor (SDF)-1/CXCR4 axis has an instrumental role during cardiac development and has been shown to be a potential therapeutic target for optimizing ventricular remodeling after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and in ischemic cardiomyopathy. Although a therapeutic target, the specific role of cardiac myocyte CXCR4 (CM-CXCR4) expression following cardiogenesis and survival of cardiac myocyte and left ventricular remodeling after AMI is unknown.

Objective: We hypothesized that cardiac myocyte derived CXCR4 is critical for cardiac development, but it may have no role in adulthood secondary to the short transient expression of SDF-1 and the delayed expression of CM-CXCR4 following AMI.