(From left) Dr. William Suh; Ruby Maillian, a TAVR recipient; and Dr. Yibin Wang. Photo: William Short
On June 19, 2018, Dr. Yibin Wang, chair of the UCLA Cardiovascular Theme, welcomed guests to the “Healthy Vessels for Healthy Living” event, part of a quarterly series of community presentations highlighting the latest research in cardiovascular medicine. Dr. Kristina Bostrom (RES ’95, FEL ’98), Maud Cady Guthman Chair in Cardiology and chief of cardiology at the VA West Los Angeles Medical Center, opened the program with an overview of heart valve disease and discoveries made at UCLA that have altered the course of cardiovascular research.
One advance, presented by featured speaker Dr. William Suh (RES ’05), director of the transradial catheterization and interventions program at UCLA, is minimally invasive transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) for patients who are at moderate or high surgical risk. The UCLA program has performed more than 500 valve replacement procedures, providing an alternative to open heart surgery for frail patients with aortic stenosis, the most common heart valve disease.
Dr. Deena Goldwater, who holds joint appointments in the UCLA Divisions of Cardiology and Geriatrics, spoke about her research on resilience and how it contributes to optimal quality of life in older adults with cardiovascular disease. Her focus is on interventions such as physical rehabilitation, stress management or medication administration to facilitate resilience and recovery. Dr. Tzung Hsiai (PhD ’01), professor of medicine and bioengineering, spoke about regeneration as the next frontier in cardiovascular medicine. While the human heart is unable to regenerate new muscle when damaged, zebrafish can regenerate damaged cardiac muscle. His research explores these regenerative abilities and hopes it will yield clues for improving therapy after human heart attacks.
For more information, contact Michelle Jacobson at: 310-267-1213
