Chairman Of The Department Of Internal Medicine Co-Authors Article To Appear In The New England Journal of Medicine
By Mel Fabrikant Thursday, April 23, 2009, 04:19 PM EDT
Julius M. Gardin, M.D., chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC), is the co-author of an article in the March 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, volume 360, No. 12.
The article, “Racial Differences in Incident Heart Failure among Young Adults,” prospectively addressed the incidence of heart failure over a 20-year period among 5,115 blacks and whites of both sexes who were 18 to 30 years of age at baseline.
The study concluded that incident heart failure before 50 years of age is substantially more common among blacks than whites. Hypertension, obesity, and borderline low or decreased left ventricular systolic function measured by echocardiography that are present before a person is 35 years of age are important antecedents that may be targets for the prevention of heart failure. These individuals were also more likely to have diabetes and chronic kidney disease. These findings have important implications for efforts aimed at preventing heart failure in this high-risk population. Further studies are needed to examine the benefits and risks of these early
approaches to preventing this serious disease in black young adults.
Dr. Gardin has served as the chief of Cardiology at St. John Hospital, Detroit, Michigan and at the University of California Irvine Medical School. He is a former president of the American Society of Echocardiography and currently associate editor of the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography. He was awarded the Seymour Gordon Award for Distinguished Achievement by the Detroit chapter of the American Heart Association. He was active in securing a Blue Cross Center of Excellence Award, and certification by Solucient® for St. John Hospital for being one of the top 100 cardiovascular hospitals and one of the top 15 major medical teaching hospitals.
Dr. Gardin has developed programs in preventive cardiology, lipid clinic, lipid laboratory approved by the Centers for Disease Control, computed tomographic coronary angiography, carotid stenting, and peripheral vascular intervention. With National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding, he established a core echocardiography laboratory for multicenter studies. With American Heart Association funding, he has studied subclinical cardiovascular disease for Mexican-Americans. Other accomplishments include having received a Certificate in Healthcare Administration from UCLA, having spent a research sabbatical year (funded by the NIH) in a cardiac molecular biology laboratory at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and having been an author on 175 original research publications.
HealthGrades® named HUMC as one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals for 2007,
2008, and 2009. This designation recognizes hospitals that have demonstrated superior clinical quality over a seven-year time period, based upon an analysis of more than 75 million Medicare patient records. These hospitals have achieved better survival rates and lower complication rates across dozens of medical procedures and diagnoses, from cardiac care to orthopedic surgery, consistently ranking among the top five percent in the nation for overall clinical outcomes. HUMC is the only healthcare facility in New Jersey, New York, and New England to be named one of America’s 50 Best Hospitals, for three years in a row.
For more information, please visit the medical center’s website at www.humc.com.
