Ronald Witteles

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

Web Site Links

• Stanford Amyloid Center

Industry Relationships

Stanford is committed to ethical and transparent interactions with our industry partners. It is our policy to disclose payments of $5,000 or more, equity valued at $5,000 or more in a publicly traded company, or any equity in a privately held company, to physicians and scientists employed by Stanford University from companies or other commercial entities with which they interact as part of their professional activities. View Full Information

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

• B-Receptor Signaling in Cardiomyopathy Recruiting
• Study of the Effect of Sitagliptin on Glucose (Sugar) Metabolism in Patients with Heart Failure Recruiting

Publications

• Insulin-resistant cardiomyopathy clinical evidence, mechanisms, and treatment options. Witteles RM, Fowler MB. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2008; 51 (2): 93-102
• Clinical problem-solving. Fool's Gold. Leeper NJ, Dhaliwal G, Saint S, Witteles RM. N Engl J Med. 2008; 359 (19): 2035-41
• 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