Highlights of the week:
Happy Easter & Happy Passover
To all those celebrating Easter and Passover this week/weekend — we wish you and yours a very happy holiday.
ACC 26 Round-up: DCRI Brings New Science, Guidance, Big Questions
Duke cardiology faculty members and operational experts from The Duke Clinical Research Institute presented or contributed to research across more than 70 sessions at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions (ACC.26), held March 28–30 in New Orleans. Their thought leadership encompassed featured presentations, late-breaking clinical trials, moderated debates, digital poster forums, and expert panel discussions as they shared new data, debated emerging evidence, and offered practical guidance on clinical care.
Collectively, their work covered an extensive range of topics across nearly every major cardiovascular subspecialty, including novel trial results, AI-driven innovation, policy, prevention, and the human dimensions of a career in cardiology.
An excellent round-up of presentations can be found right here.
Many thanks to all who joined us at our annual gathering or by visiting us in the vendor hall!
Member of Holley Lab Named Goldwater Scholar
We are pleased to share that Daniel Levin, a Duke undergraduate member of Christopher Holley’s research laboratory team in the Duke Cardiovascular Research Center (DCRC), has been honored as a 2026 Barry M. Goldwater Scholar by the Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. The award recognizes accomplished sophomore and junior researchers who plan to pursue careers in the fields of science, engineering, and mathematics.
Levin, a member of Duke University’s Class of 2027, is one of four Duke scholars chosen for the distinction this year. In total, the Foundation is awarding 454 scholarships for 2026-2027. He is a previous participant in the DCRC’s Cardiology Undergraduate Research Experiences summer program.
Levin’s research interests include membrane biochemistry, biomolecular condensation, and RNA biology, and he plans to pursue a PhD in chemical biology and conduct research in membrane dynamics and lipid chemistry. He is originally from Pittsburgh, PA.
You can read the full story on all the Duke recipients here. For a full list of this year’s Goldwater Scholars, visit https://goldwaterscholarship.gov.
Congratulations, Daniel!
Fueling Better Outcomes in Heart Failure
A healthy heart efficiently pumps blood throughout the body to provide good circulation, stable energy, and healthy blood pressure. A diseased heart, though, struggles to keep up, which can cause shortness of breath, fatigue, irregular heart rhythms, and more. Improving heart function and symptoms remain important goals for patients with heart failure.
Senthil Selvaraj, MD, assistant professor of medicine in cardiology at Duke University School of Medicine, is helping patients do just that. By better understanding heart metabolism in both healthy individuals and those with heart diseases, he’s gaining important insights into how the heart uses fuel and the impacts that has across the body.
Heart failure can occur at any age, but it is primarily a disease among the elderly; the incidence of heart disease in general rises sharply above age 65, and at 75 the risk of congestive heart failure is up to 10 times what it is among younger adults.
The path to a healthy heart starts at the other end of life, in infancy. The neonatal heart mostly runs on glucose, but as it matures, it starts using other fuels, eventually running mostly on fats with some glucose and ketones. “This flexibility,” Selvaraj said, “helps the heart stay efficient.”
In heart failure, the heart loses the flexibility to use fats and glucose efficiently. “What we’ve found, though, is the heart likes ketones,” Selvaraj said, “but ketones aren’t typically available in high abundance.”
Ketones are a chemical the liver produces when the body breaks down fat for energy when it doesn’t get enough glucose. Ketone bodies are mostly generated through fasting, starvation, or by eating a ketogenic diet. “When ketones are around, failing hearts readily use them,” Selvaraj said. This has led him to investigate ketones’ effects on heart function across the spectrum of cardiovascular health.
Exercise strengthens heart muscle, which, in turn, boosts blood flow, manages weight, lowers bad cholesterol, and more — and exercise becomes increasingly important to overall health as people age. However, people with heart failure often have exercise intolerance, so they may struggle to get enough movement for the heart to become stronger.
SGLT-2 inhibitors have become standard treatment for all types of heart failure. They may work, in part, by making ketones a more readily available fuel source for the heart. Selvaraj wanted to know if adding even more ketones could improve heart function and allow patients with heart failure to exercise more.
Could ketones become a heart therapy? Early studies show ketones, shown here in a drink, are emerging less as an exercise booster and more as a metabolic tweak: an alternative fuel that may let the heart work a little more efficiently under stress.
A phase 1 clinical trial examined the safety of taking ketone supplements in addition to an SGLT-2 inhibitor in patients with heart failure.
“We wanted to see if a ketone drink would be tolerated in people already on SGLT-2 inhibitors,” Selvaraj said, “and we found that that combination therapy appeared to be safe.”
A phase 2 clinical trial investigated whether taking a ketone drink acutely would allow patients to exercise more.
Patients were given a ketone drink and then tested for their peak VO2, or the total amount of oxygen your body can consume during exercise. “It’s an integrative measure of physical fitness,” Selvaraj said. “The more oxygen you can consume, the more your heart is pumping, the more blood the legs are getting, the more the lungs are exchanging gas, etc.”
Most people, though, don’t push themselves to exercise to maximum capacity, so the research team also tested submaximal exercise, which is more consistent with daily activities.
While one ketone drink did not change a patient’s ability to exercise more, Selvaraj noted the researchers did see several changes happen in the heart.
The addition of ketones helped decrease pressure in the heart during exercise and stress, increase heart function, and shift the body’s use away from carbohydrates as fuel.
The next step, now underway, is looking at the effects of multiple doses of ketone drinks over an eight-week period. If adding ketone drinks into the treatment plan for patients with heart failure improves the heart’s ability to pump over time, it may allow patients to exercise more. The more exercise they can safely do, the better their chances are of improving the overall function of the heart.
“This research, we hope, could lead to more people with heart failure living healthier lives,” Selvaraj said.
This story was written by Alissa Kocer and appears in the March 25, 2026 issue of Magnify magazine, published by the Duke School of Medicine.
Kudos to ALLAY HF Team
We received a thoughtful note of gratitude from one of the first patients to enroll in the ALLAY HF trial. It was shared with us by Marat Fudim.
“The patient completed participation and saw great benefits from it,” said Fudim. “Beyond that, she appreciated the extra care she received from the team as part of the research over the past two years. Each patient’s journey is a labor of love and hard work from initial screening to the procedure, and then the two years of follow up by the team, which in this case was led by Lacey Taylor and Matt Gray.”
Others on the team include Andres Pineda, Zack Wegermann, Rob Mentz, Mark Kittipibul, Todd McVeigh, and Fudim. The note says:
“Thank you and your team so very much for your professionalism and all you did for me over the past two years — I am so grateful the research group has implemented this procedure to help us older folks — Life is so precious and sometimes we take it for granted until you fear its almost taken from you. Your sense of humor really encouraged me and made me almost feel everything is ok. Thanks again to you, Lacey and Matthew for your kindness, patience and time. You’re the best — God Bless all of you!” – patient name withheld for privacy
Solid teamwork!
DUHS Leadership Update
End of Flu Season
The end of flu season at Duke University Health System was declared earlier this week by the Infectious Disease monitoring team. As of April 1, 2026 DUHS has officially moved to Tier 1 visitation status. You can access the Tier 1 visitation standard work document and patient visitation letters on Duke Health Now.
Upcoming Events & Opportunities
April is National Donate Life Month and National Arab American Heritage Month.
Cardiology Grand Rounds
April 7: On the Way to Advanced Heart Failure with Paula Rambarat, MD. 5 p.m., DN 2002 and via Zoom.
CD Fellows Core Curriculum Conference
April 8: EP Case Conference with Cosette Champion and Alex Gunn. Noon, DMP 7E39 and via Zoom.
April 10: ECG Review with Tom Bashore. Noon, Zoom only.
April 15: DHP Case Conference with Hubert Haywood. Noon, DMP 7E39 and via Zoom.
April 17: ECG Review with Neil Freeman. Noon, Zoom only.
April 22: HF/TX Case Conference with Yoo Jin Kim. Noon, Noon, DMP 7E39 and via Zoom.
April 24: TBD. Noon, Zoom only.
April 29: EP Case Conference with Krunal Amin and Verda Arshad. Noon, DMP 7E39 and via Zoom.
MMCVI Grand Rounds
Multi-Modality Cardiovascular Imaging Grand Rounds: A multi-imaging approach to cardiovascular disease cases. Thursdays, Noon to 1 p.m., via Zoom.
April 9: Heart Transplant Rejection Surveillance with Merna Hussein/Joe Lerman
April 16: CANCELLED
April 23: Cardiac Masses with Fawaz Alenezi
April 30: HOCM with Fawaz Alenezi
May 7: Imaging Approach to Congenital Heart Disease with Bharathi Upadhya
May 14: Pericardial Diseases with Fawaz Alenezi
May 21: Imaging TOF Patient with Bharathi Upadhya
May 28: HFpEF Imaging Modalities with Rebecca/Harriet
June 4: Endocarditis with Fawaz Alenezi
June 11: CT Fractional Flow Review and Akshay Pendyal
June 18: D-Trans vs L-Trans Congenital Heart Disease with Fawaz Alenezi
June 25: Systemic and Pulmonary Hypertensive Heart Disease with Fawaz Alenezi
Upcoming CME Activities:
2026 Duke Heart CMEs
The dates for the following 2026 Duke Heart symposia have been set. We will announce others as they are added.
- June 6: Duke Heart Failure Symposium — Course directors are Marat Fudim, Rob Mentz, Richa Agarwal, and Stephanie Barnes. Location: Durham Convention Center, Durham, NC.
- October 30: 18th Annual NC Research Triangle Pulmonary Hypertension Symposium – Course directors are Terry Fortin, Sudar Rajagopal, and Jimmy Ford. Location: Durham Convention Center, Durham, NC.
- September 26: Duke Case-Based Multimodality Imaging Symposium – Course directors are Sreek Vemulapalli and Anita Kelsey. Location: Trent Semans Center, Great Hall.
Please save the dates!
NC Walk for Victory — Support our Aortic team!
Duke Heart & Vascular is proud to again serve as the presenting sponsor of the NC Walk for Victory being held in Raleigh on Saturday, April 25. Dr. Chad Hughes is again serving as medical director for the walk and he does a fantastic job!
This event unites our regional Marfan/LDS/VEDS community in support of patients and families affected by genetic aortic and vascular conditions. It’s a wonderful event that has grown larger each year. We love seeing our patients and their families join in all the fun — and we’d love to see you there as well!
Please join us from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 25 at Laurel Hills Community Center in Laurel Hills Park located at 3808 Edwards Mill Rd, Raleigh, NC 27612. This is an easy to find location with ample and free parking.
Please join our team and donate to this cause if you are able, and forward this message to anyone who may be interested in joining! Together, we walk for awareness. Together, we Walk for Victory.
Thank you!
Support Ramos & Visionaries of the Year Campaign
Please consider supporting our amazing team member, Dayana Ramos, DNP, a critical care nurse practitioner in cardiology (and cancer survivor) during this year’s Visionaries of the Year campaign with Blood Cancer United.
“I’m currently raising funds for this year’s Visionaries of the Year campaign with Blood Cancer United (formerly the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society) as part of Team Don’t Give Up!” said Ramos. “This cause is incredibly personal to me, as a leukemia survivor who recently celebrated five years cancer-free, I know firsthand how critical research funding and patient support truly are.”
The 10-week fundraising competition kicks off on March 9, and her goal is to raise $25,000 to help advance lifesaving treatments and support families facing blood cancer.
Please support Dayana in any way you can, even if only with words of encouragement! Her fundraising page for Blood Cancer United can be found here.
Have news to share?
If you have news to share with the Pulse readership, please contact Tracey Koepke, director of communications for Duke Heart & Vascular at tracey.koepke@duke.edu. We would love to hear about your latest accomplishments, professional news, cool happenings, and any events or opportunities that may be of interest to our team. Please call me with any questions: 919-681-2868. Feedback on Pulse is welcome and encouraged. Submissions by Noon on Wednesdays will be considered for weekend inclusion.
