Cardiovascular Medicine

A new smartphone device can be used to monitor patients with heart conditions. "It's convenient and not obtrusive to patients, and they can keep it for months," said Anne B. Curtis, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Charles and Mary Bauer Professor and chair of the Department of Medicine and SUNY Distinguished Professor.

An article about FDA approval of three cardiac resynchronization therapy pacemakers for the treatment of patients with heart failure quotes Anne B. Curtis, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor, Charles and Mary Bauer Professor and chair of medicine. “These new pacemakers allow clinicians to provide more personalized therapy treatment options,” she said.

Anne B. Curtis, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor, Charles and Mary Bauer Professor and chair of medicine, was a guest on the Karen Hunter Show discussing the major risk factors for heart disease. She discussed the important of a healthy diet and exercising, such as walking, but added that nothing may be more important than not smoking.

SUNY Distinguished Professor Anne B. Curtis, MD, Charles and Mary Bauer Professor and chair of medicine, was a participant on the American College of Cardiology’s ACC Cardiology Hour, where she discussed late-breaking clinical trials regarding the new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs known as PCSK9 inhibitors.

Anne B. Curtis, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor; Charles and Mary Bauer Professor and chair of medicine, was asked about broken heart syndrome after actress Debbie Reynolds died one day after her daughter, Carrie Fisher.

SUNY Distinguished Professor Anne B. Curtis, MD, comments on the fact that more people suffer heart attacks in the Buffalo Niagara region than in most other major U.S. metropolitan areas. “That really should be a call to action. That’s simply not acceptable. We know too much today about what we can do to impact the incidents of heart attacks to let that go unchallenged,” says Curtis, Charles and Mary Bauer Professor and chair of medicine.

Vijay S. Iyer, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine, is interviewed for an article about World Stroke Day.

An article on trials of stem cell therapies for heart failure and their inconsistent results quotes Vijay S. Iyer, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine.

Vijay S. Iyer, MD, PhD, associate professor of cardiology, is interviewed about a new dissolvable stent that disappears within four years of being implanted.

Two lipid-lowering drugs have been approved by the FDA and cardiologists are wasting no time in prescribing them. Though he cautions the risks of early adoption of drugs approved while outcome trials are ongoing, Stanley F. Fernandez, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the division of cardiology, remains impressed with the drugs. These drugs are "very exciting for the cardiology community,” he said. “The degree of LDL lowering seen in this class...is very impressive; and its side effect profile is very reassuring,” said Fernandez. 

UB physician-scientists attract both patients and observing doctors state-wide, as well as internationally, to the Gates Vascular Institute. "Our group is on the cutting edge," said L. Nelson Hopkins, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor, professor in the Department of Neurosurgery, and president of Gates Vascular Institute. 

John M. Canty Jr., MD, Albert and Elizabeth Rekate Professor of medicine and chief of cardiovascular medicine, provides insight on the pacemaker, which was invented in Buffalo, New York. “With what's going on in Western New York with the health care industry here and the burgeoning Buffalo Niagara Medical campus, I suspect if it was developed in 2015, the technology probably would have stayed here,” says Canty.

UB Distinguished Professor Anne B. Curtis, MD, Charles and Mary Bauer Professor and chair of medicine, discusses a study showing that weight loss might eliminate atrial fibrillation among overweight or obese individuals, particularly if patients maintain their weight loss.

Anne B. Curtis, MD, Charles and Mary Bauer Professor and chair of medicine, says out-of-the-ordinary stress while shoveling or blowing snow can put heart disease patients at risk of cardiac arrest.

Vijay S. Iyer MD, PhD, clinical associate professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, discusses the dangers of cold weather for people with heart disease. “In the cold weather, the same symptoms of a heart attack may occur in a lower level of activity,” he says.