Clinical Focus

• Cardiovascular Disease

Administrative Appointments

• Associate Director, Coronary Care Unit (CCU) (2008 - present)
• Co-Director, Stanford Amyloid Center (2008 - present)

Honors and Awards

• First Author - Selected as one of 15 most important heart failure articles in 2007, Journal of the American College of Cardiology (2008)
• Clinical Research Award, Stanford Univ. Division of Cardiovascular Medicine (2007)
• Timothy F. Beckett, Jr. Award for Excellence in Teaching by a Medicine Fellow, Stanford Univ. Dept. of Internal Medicine (2006)
• Clinical Excellence Award, Stanford University Division of Cardiovascular Medicine (2006)
• National Research Fellowship Award, Heart Failure Society of America (2006)

Professional Education

Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations

• Medicine
• Cardiovascular Medicine

Internet Links

• Stanford Amyloid Center

Current Research Interests

Dr. Witteles' research is focused in two major areas -- studying the physiology/mechanisms underyling heart failure, and clinical trials of novel heart failure therapies.

Studies of physiology/mechanisms include:
1) Relationship of insulin resistance and nonischemic cardiomyopathy. Myocardial glucose metabolism is assessed with PET imaging before/after pharmacologic interventions.

2) Cardiac resynchronization: Exploration of optimal programming methods for timing intervals with biventricular pacing devices using echocardiography and thoracic impedance measurements.

Clinical trials/studies include:

1) Cancer-therapy related cardiotoxicity: Clinical trials to test novel screening and intervention methods to prevent cancer-therapy associated cardiotoxicity from multiple agents (anthracyclines, trastuzumab, tyrosine kinase inhibitors)

2) Cardiorenal syndrome: A large completed double-blind, randomized clinical trial evaluated the role of nesiritide in treating cardiorenal syndrome. Current ongoing trials include studies of a novel natriuretic-peptide (outpatient study) and an adenosine antagonist (inpatient study).

3) Amyloidosis: Clinical trial of novel therapies for amyloidosis

Clinical Trials

• Study of the Effect of Sitagliptin on Glucose (Sugar) Metabolism in Patients with Heart Failure Recruiting

Publications

• Clinical problem-solving. Fool's Gold. Leeper NJ, Dhaliwal G, Saint S, Witteles RM. N Engl J Med. 2008; 359 (19): 2035-41
• Insulin-resistant cardiomyopathy clinical evidence, mechanisms, and treatment options. Witteles RM, Fowler MB. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2008; 51 (2): 93-102
• Impact of nesiritide on renal function in patients with acute decompensated heart failure and pre-existing renal dysfunction a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial. Witteles RM, Kao D, Christopherson D, Matsuda K, Vagelos RH, Schreiber D, Fowler MB. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2007; 50 (19): 1835-40
• Cardiomyopathy of insulin resistance. Witteles RM, Fowler MB. Heart Fail Clin. 2006; 2 (1): 13-23
• Insulin resistance in idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy: a possible etiologic link. Witteles RM, Tang WH, Jamali AH, Chu JW, Reaven GM, Fowler MB. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2004; 44 (1): 78-81