CLINICAL NOTES

Dr. Guillermo Torre-Amione, a heart failure specialist at the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center, has been approved by the FDA to conduct the first study of neurostimulation as a treatment for heart failure.

neurostimulation, which is currently used to treat certain forms of pain, activates nerves in the spine to create changes in blood flow, potentially improving the heart’s ability to pump effectively. This stimulation may improve blood pressure and reduce the number of fatal cardiac arrhythmias.

Historical data shows connections between the brain, nervous system and heart, but no one has attempted to harness this relationship for therapeutic results, according to Torre, who serves as principal investigator. He and his team will study whether they can control this process and improve patients’ symptoms and outcomes by stimulating the nerves that activate the release of hormones. n

Dr. Orlando Diaz, an interventional neuroradiologist with the Methodist Neurological Institute, is the first in Houston to treat a brain aneurysm with a recently FDAapproved liquid material instead of traditional open skull surgery or platinum coils.

Dr. James Musser, The Fondren Endowed Distinguished Chair and codirector of The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, recently discovered a simple gene mutation that decreases the chance people will get a flesh-eating disease called necrotizing fasciitis. Further, they proved that inactivating this section of the gene lessens the devastating disease in humans.

Diaz performed the two-and-a-half-hour procedure on a 68-year-old woman using a minimally invasive technique. He then administered the Onyx HD 500 liquid to the aneurysm, instead of using traditional coiling.

Once the liquid makes contact with blood inside the bulging aneurysm, it becomes a firm pudding-like substance and works like concrete to stabilize the aneurysm and prevent more blood from entering and causing it to rupture. The treatment is most effective with irregularly shaped intracranial aneurysms where open surgery or coiling alone isn’t sufficient. n

necrotizing fasciitis is rare but serious. It is lethal in approximately 30 percent of those who develop it. The most common cause is the group A Streptococcus (GAS) bacteria, the same bacteria that causes step throat. The research was funded by the national Institutes of Health and the American Heart Association. results appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. n

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