Three patients at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center were among the first in the United States to be implanted with a next-generation artificial heart pump called the DuraHeart™ Left-Ventricular Assist System. The surgeries took place earlier this year. NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia is one of only three centers in the U.S. currently enrolling patients in a clinical trial studying the device.

NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is the only tri-state-area hospital listed on the 2009 U.S.News & World Report "America's Best Children's Hospitals" "Honor Roll" and one of only 10 children's hospitals in the nation to be ranked in all 10 clinical specialties. NewYork-Presbyterian provides children's health services at two major centers: NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital and the Phyllis and David Komansky Center for Children's Health.

Eligible patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), the most common and aggressive form of brain cancer, are enrolling in the ACT III clinical trial of a vaccine called CDX-110, which may prevent recurrence and extend survival. Physician-scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, together with Weill Cornell Medical College and Columbia University Medical Center, are helping to lead the Phase II multicenter trial of the vaccine, which is thought to work by "training" the immune system to target and kill cancer cells.

Twelve surgical transplant teams, including more than 60 clinicians working in 12 operating rooms, successfully performed New York City's first reported six-way kidney transplant at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. Six patients received lifesaving kidneys, five of whom had no compatible donor.

Despite considerable advances in the treatment of hypertension, many patients fail to respond to standard drug therapy, which focuses on regulating blood volume, salt intake, and the body's renin-angiotensin system (RAS).

A new study, led by physician-scientists at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and the Hospital for Special Surgery, finds that atherosclerosis (arterial plaque) occurs prematurely and more commonly in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus).

Physician-scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital have demonstrated that, among hypertensive patients with electrocardiographic evidence of a type of enlarged heart condition called left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), the drug Losartan is more likely to reduce the severity of their condition than the drug Atenolol.

Sex has many health benefits -- including mental, cardiovascular, and immune system health -- according to two physicians and sexual health experts at NewYork Weill Cornell Medical Center.