Uploaded December 2014 | Updated September 2026, 51 minutes ago
Dr. Nathan Stitziel is a cardiologist at the Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Heart & Vascular Center, specializing in cardiovascular genetics. To schedule an appointment with Dr. Stitziel, visit: barnesjewish.org/requestappointment/?physician=Doctor+Nathan+Oliver+Stitziel
As a Washington University undergrad, Dr. Stitziel had a class, Physics of the Heart, which really exposed him to the idea that there’s quite a bit of physics, quite a bit of math, quite a bit of science in medicine and it exposed him to the idea that he could study science and help people along the way. He is the Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Genetics at the Heart & Vascular Center. Cardiovascular disease encompasses a broad variety of diseases including diseases of the heart muscle, diseases of the heart’s electrical system and diseases of the heart’s vasculature and we’ve understood for quite some time that heritable factors underlie the risk of developing almost all of these diseases and cardiovascular genetics is a field in which we try and understand those specific inherited factors that underlie that risk and then we try to translate those findings in an attempt to make personalized care and personalized diagnoses. A typical example is someone comes to clinic and says, “Well I have HCM or another form of inherited cardiovascular disease” and we try and perform a comprehensive evaluation of what exactly is running in the family to get an idea of what the genetic pathways are in the genetic disease that runs in the family. Often times we are able to offer specific precise DNA testing to understand specific inherited factors that might underlie the risk of disease in family and if we’re able to identify those specific factors then we can offer, at risk individuals, a test to see whether or not they’ve inherited that same factor of its presence in the family causing disease. And then for at risk family members we know that if individuals have inherited those changes, we know that we need to be particularly vigilant about screening them for the development of disease. Dr. Stitziel enjoys interacting with patients on a very personal level and being able to help them understand what it means to have an inherited disease and what it means for both them and their family members and trying to be able to relate that information on a way that’s understandable. The Heart & Vascular Center is leading the forefront in terms of cardiovascular care and cardiovascular research in a variety of fields. The heart and vascular team is pushing to lead in human genetic studies by being able to start to translate some of the findings that we have from a research perspective into clinical care and we’re hopefully going to be pushing that envelope as we move forward.
To learn more about heart and vascular services, visit: barnesjewish.org/heart-vascular
Dr. Nathan Stitziel is a cardiologist at the Washington University and Barnes-Jewish Heart & Vascular Center, specializing in cardiovascular genetics. To schedule an appointment with Dr. Stitziel, visit: barnesjewish.org/requestappointment/?physician=Doctor+Nathan+Oliver+Stitziel
As a Washington University undergrad, Dr. Stitziel had a class, Physics of the Heart, which really exposed him to the idea that there’s quite a bit of physics, quite a bit of math, quite a bit of science in medicine and it exposed him to the idea that he could study science and help people along the way. He is the Director of the Center for Cardiovascular Genetics at the Heart & Vascular Center. Cardiovascular disease encompasses a broad variety of diseases including diseases of the heart muscle, diseases of the heart’s electrical system and diseases of the heart’s vasculature and we’ve understood for quite some time that heritable factors underlie the risk of developing almost all of these diseases and cardiovascular genetics is a field in which we try and understand those specific inherited factors that underlie that risk and then we try to translate those findings in an attempt to make personalized care and personalized diagnoses. A typical example is someone comes to clinic and says, “Well I have HCM or another form of inherited cardiovascular disease” and we try and perform a comprehensive evaluation of what exactly is running in the family to get an idea of what the genetic pathways are in the genetic disease that runs in the family. Often times we are able to offer specific precise DNA testing to understand specific inherited factors that might underlie the risk of disease in family and if we’re able to identify those specific factors then we can offer, at risk individuals, a test to see whether or not they’ve inherited that same factor of its presence in the family causing disease. And then for at risk family members we know that if individuals have inherited those changes, we know that we need to be particularly vigilant about screening them for the development of disease. Dr. Stitziel enjoys interacting with patients on a very personal level and being able to help them understand what it means to have an inherited disease and what it means for both them and their family members and trying to be able to relate that information on a way that’s understandable. The Heart & Vascular Center is leading the forefront in terms of cardiovascular care and cardiovascular research in a variety of fields. The heart and vascular team is pushing to lead in human genetic studies by being able to start to translate some of the findings that we have from a research perspective into clinical care and we’re hopefully going to be pushing that envelope as we move forward.
To learn more about heart and vascular services, visit: barnesjewish.org/heart-vascular
