Evan George Introduction. Heart Failure with preserved ejection (HFpEF) is a type of heart failure that does not currently have a definitive mechanism due to multiple factors. It is fundamentally an issue with diastole, where the heart cannot fully relax. An average left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ranges from 55%…

Sanjana Ranganathan Introduction. Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) is a chronic condition caused by acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and resultant damage to cardiac valves.1   When a patient is infected with group A Streptococcus, an immune response is triggered which can cause auto-immune reactions against host heart tissue by Streptococcus– specific antibodies…

Amelia Khoo Introduction.  Heart disease and its resulting pathology is the leading cause of death worldwide.1 Cardiovascular mortality can result from overwork of tissue following pressure-overloaded states such as chronic systemic hypertension, pulmonary hypertension, and aortic stenosis.  Two of the manifestations of  these disease states are maladaptive hypertrophy of the…

Frederick Wang Introduction.  Heart failure is a progressive disease resulting in inadequate blood flow and poor systemic nutrient exchange.  Alarmingly, the coexistence of Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and heart failure is extremely high, affecting 30-40% of patients, and is associated with higher heart failure hospitalizations and cardiovascular-related mortality.1,2 T2DM…

Ryan Nguyen Introduction. Ischemic strokes make up 85% of strokes and can be caused by thrombi.1 Tissue affected by ischemia can be categorized by probability of infarction. Penumbra is tissue likely to infarct but is still salvageable with timely intervention.1,2 Standard treatment for stroke is reperfusion therapy via tissue plasminogen…

Brendan D’Souza Introduction. The incidence of diabetes and associated mortality is increasing worldwide in both developed and developing countries, and the prevalence of heart failure in diabetic patients ranges from 19% to 26%.2-3 Patients with diabetic cardiomyopathy are usually asymptomatic before the disease progresses.3 However, MIF increases cross-linking with collagen,…

Mason Danna  Introduction. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death globally, and heart failure is a major component of cardiovascular related morbidity and mortality.1 Cardiac remodeling is molecular, cellular and interstitial changes that manifest clinically as changes in size, mass, geometry and function of the heart after injury.2 Hippo…