End stage heart failure is a major cause of death in the US. At present, organ transplant and left-ventricular assist devices remain the only viable treatments for these patients. Cardiac tissue engineering presents the possibility of a new option. Nanomaterials such as gold nanorods (AuNRs) and carbon nanotubes (CNTs) present unique properties that are beneficial for cardiac tissue engineering approaches. In particular, these nanomaterials can modulate electrical conductivity, hardness, and roughness of bulk materials to improve tissue functionality. Moreover, they can deliver bioactive cargo to affect cell phenotypes. This review covers recent advances in the use of nanomaterials for cardiac tissue engineering.

Approximately 300,000 people in the United States are estimated to have Chagas’ disease, with cardiac manifestations including arrhythmias occurring in 20%–30% of patients. We report a patient diagnosed with Chagas’ cardiomyopathy after presenting in ventricular tachycardia. This patient was asymptomatic before her presentation with recurrent episodes of ventricular tachycardia, which motivated us to screen her since she was an immigrant from an endemic Chagas region. This manuscript highlights some of the characteristic cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electrophysiology findings present in patients with Chagas’ cardiomyopathy. We also detail the management of patients with Chagas’ cardiomyopathy who have suffered from ventricular tachycardia.

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