The Brigham and Women's Hospital is world renowned for cardiovascular research. The history of the Cardiovascular and Cardiac Surgery Divisions is laden with medical firsts: the first mitral valve surgery, the first direct current cardioversion for atrial fibrillation, the first cardiac care unit, the first use of anti-arrhythmic medication following myocardial infarction, the first heart transplant in New England.
Clinical trials at Brigham and Women's Hospital have demonstrated that thrombolytic therapy (clot-busting drugs) could significantly improve a patient's chance of survival following a heart attack, that aspirin could prevent a first heart attack, that ACE inhibitors could save lives and attenuate left ventricular enlargement following a heart attack and that cholesterol lowering medication could save lives in patients following a first heart attack.
Basic scientists at Brigham and Women's hospital have identified the genes responsible for a variety of cardiac diseases, including hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and Holt-Oram syndrome, have made significant progress towards the understanding of coronary and vascular disease, endothelial function, cardiac mechanics and heart failure.
