Heart   

Translational research, or converting basic science discoveries to clinical care, occurs across all aspects of the Heart Signature Program. Research endeavors focus on heart failure, ischemic disease, transplantation, arrhythmias/electrophysiology and vascular disease. The program is directed by Thomas Ryan, MD.

Heart care is provided at The Ohio State University Medical Center’s Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital, University Hospital, University Hospital East, and at local and regional outpatient clinics associated with Ohio State. Educational opportunities within the Heart Signature Program include fellowship training in cardiovascular medicine, cardiac surgery and vascular
surgery, along with doctoral, postdoctoral and continuing medical education programs.

Heart Signature Program highlights of 2007

• A program in cardiovascular cell-based therapies has been established and embraces a bench-to-bedside strategy in research. It is directed by Vincent Pompili, MD, whose team has completed a phase I clinical stem cell trial in patients with chronic myocardial ischemia based on data and studies generated by his lab group; the team was preparing to launch a phase II trial in 2008. Pompili’s group has been funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the Third Frontier Initiative of the state of Ohio (including participation in the Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine), the Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center and the Department of Defense.
• Juan Crestanello, MD, was awarded the American College of Surgeons Faculty Research Fellowship. This award supports his research on the protective effects of ischemic preconditioning on mitochondria function.
• The Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and the Cardiovascular Clinical and Translational Research Organization (CCTRO) led investigations of the efficacy and safety of hemodynamic monitoring devices for improving treatment outcomes of patients with heart failure. During 2007 the CCTRO managed more than 100 clinical trials. Ohio State
  scientists participated in clinical trials for the HeartPod (Savacor, Inc.), Wireless Pressure Sensor (CardioMEMS, Inc.) and Chronicle ICD (Medtronic, Inc.), taking part in both the feasibility and pivotal studies of these novel technologies, and underscoring collaboration between heart-failure specialists and electrophysiologists. Garrie Haas, MD, William Abraham, MD, and Ayesha Hasan, MD, are Ohio State principal investigators for these studies.
• The laboratory of Jill Rafael-Fortney, PhD, with Phil Binkley, MD, and Paul Janssen, PhD, showed reduced claudin-5 in 60 percent of human end-stage cardiomyopathy samples. Claudin-5 reductions can be independent of other protein changes, and other cell junction proteins are never specifically reduced. This first report of a tight junction protein involved in human cardiomyopathy suggests claudin-5 may participate in novel pathways to heart failure.
• The laboratory of Orlando Simonetti, PhD, works to develop cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) technology. His team published work demonstrating novel hardware and software that enables treadmill exercise stress imaging to be performed with CMR. Preliminary results in patients suggest this technique will offer a number of advantages over other stress-imaging methods.
• The laboratory of Paul Janssen, PhD, showed that myofilament calcium responsiveness is frequency-dependent in larger mammals; this newly discovered regulatory mechanism could be a target for therapeutic strategies to combat diastolic dysfunction.
• Jean Starr, MD, in collaboration with Randy Wexler, MD, continues work on a multicenter clinical trial for the Rheos Carotid Baroreceptor Device. This is a phase II study to gain FDA approval for this unique device in its treatment of refractory hypertension. The device is implanted during surgery in patients who have had inadequate control of their blood pressure and are on maximal medical therapy; the patients are then followed for one year to monitor their blood pressure response, and initial study results have been extremely favorable.