Clinical Focus

• Heart Failure
• Amyloidosis
• Cardiotoxicity of Cancer Therapies
• Cardiovascular Disease

Administrative Appointments

• Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency Training Program (2011 - present)
• Co-Director, Stanford Amyloid Center (2008 - present)
• Sr. Associate Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency Training Program (2009 - 2011)
• Associate Director, Coronary Care Unit (CCU) (2008 - 2009)

Honors and Awards

• David W. Rytand Award for Excellence in Clinical Teaching by a Department of Medicine faculty member, Stanford University Department of Internal Medicine (2009, 2010)
• 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)

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 trials of novel therapies for amyloidosis

Clinical Trials

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

Publications

• Chemotherapy-associated cardiotoxicity: how often does it really occur and how can it be prevented? Witteles RM, Fowler MB, Telli ML. Heart Fail Clin. 2011; 7 (3): 333-44
• Heart transplantation and cardiac amyloidosis: Approach to screening and novel management strategies. Varr BC, Liedtke M, Arai S, Lafayette RA, Schrier SL, Witteles RM. J Heart Lung Transplant. 2011
• Radiation therapy for breast cancer: buyer beware. Witteles RM, J Am Coll Cardiol. 2011; 57 (4): 453-4
• Left ventricular dysfunction in patients receiving cardiotoxic cancer therapies are clinicians responding optimally? Yoon GJ, Telli ML, Kao DP, Matsuda KY, Carlson RW, Witteles RM. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2010; 56 (20): 1644-50
• Heart failure in Hispanics. Vivo RP, Krim SR, Cevik C, Witteles RM. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2009; 53 (14): 1167-75