http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/heart-watch-blog.html Heart watch blog From Heart watch blog Fri, 08 May 2009 11:25:56 GMT en-us http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/images/blogs/heart-watch-blog-76230.jpg http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/heart-watch-blog.html 100 65 http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2009/massive-decline-in-coronary-death-in-iceland.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2009/massive-decline-in-coronary-death-in-iceland.html Fri, 08 May 2009 11:25:56 GMT In the 25 years between 1981 and 2006 mortality rates from coronary heart disease (CHD) in Iceland decreased by a remarkable 80% in men and women aged between 25 and 74 years. How could such a huge decline be explained? Were the health services of Iceland so much better, or were its citizens reducing their risks?1........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/how-new-heart-cells-are-created.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/how-new-heart-cells-are-created.html Fri, 08 May 2009 11:25:56 GMT Researchers at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease have identified for the first time key genetic factors that drive the process of generating new heart cells. The discovery, published in the current issue of the journal Nature, provides important new directions on how stem cells appears to be used to repair damaged hearts........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/exercise-for-patients-with-chronic-heart-failure.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/exercise-for-patients-with-chronic-heart-failure.html Fri, 08 May 2009 11:25:56 GMT Regular exercise is safe for heart failure patients and may slightly lower their risk of death or hospitalization, as per results from the largest and most comprehensive clinical trial to examine the effects of exercise in chronic heart failure patients. Supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health, the study also observed that heart failure patients who add regular, moderate physical activity to standard medical treatment report a higher quality of life in comparison to similar patients who receive medical treatment only........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/reduce-depression-after-heart-surgery.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2009/reduce-depression-after-heart-surgery.html Fri, 08 May 2009 11:25:56 GMT Two non-pharmacological interventionscognitive behavior treatment and supportive stress managementappear more effective than usual care for treating depression after coronary artery bypass surgery, as per a report in the recent issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2009/why-that-patient-is-in-heart-failure.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2009/why-that-patient-is-in-heart-failure.html Fri, 08 May 2009 11:25:56 GMT A failing heart makes a lot of a hormone needed to eliminate the excess salt and water bloating the body but not enough of the enzyme needed to activate it, scientists say. Using novel assays they developed, Medical College of Georgia scientists found people in heart failure have less of the enzyme corin needed to activate pro-ANP, or pro-atrial natriuretic peptide, a hormone made by heart muscle cells that, when active, helps reduce extra sodium and fluid that tax the cardiovascular system........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2009/genes-associated-with-sudden-cardiac-death.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2009/genes-associated-with-sudden-cardiac-death.html Fri, 08 May 2009 11:25:56 GMT You're sitting at your desk and suddenly your heart is beating in overdrive or worse, lurching along like a car on fumes. It is a shocking, uncomfortable and frightening sensation. Irregular heart rhythms are a common cause of sudden cardiac death or SCD, a condition that accounts for 450,000 deaths annually in the United States. Researchers are now closer to understanding what causes SCD and who it may strike, said Gonalo Abecasis, associate professor of biostatistics at the University of Michigan School of Public Health........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/2-2009/gene-associated-with-early-heart-attack.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/2-2009/gene-associated-with-early-heart-attack.html Fri, 08 May 2009 11:25:56 GMT The largest study ever completed of genetic factors linked to heart attacks has identified nine genetic regions three not previously described that appear to increase the risk for early-onset myocardial infarction. The report from the Myocardial Infarction Genetics Consortium, based on information from a total of 26,000 inviduals in 10 countries, will appear in Nature Genetics and is receiving early online release........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2009/coronary-heart-disease.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/1-2009/coronary-heart-disease.html Fri, 08 May 2009 11:25:56 GMT The Framingham and National Cholesterol Education Program tools, NCEP, do not accurately predict coronary heart disease, according to a study performed at the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, CT. The study included 1,653 patients who had no history of coronary heart disease; although 738 patients were taking statins (cholesterol lowering drugs like Lipitor) because of increased risk of developing coronary heart disease. All 1,653 patients underwent a coronary CT angiogram and doctors compared their risk of coronary heart disease, determined by the Framingham and NCEP risk assessment tools, to the amount of plaque actually found in their arteries as a result of the scan. Results showed that 21% of the patients who were thought to need statin drugs before the scan (because of the Framingham and NCEP assessment tools) did not require them; "26% of the patients who were already taking statins (because of the risk factor assessment tools) had no detectable plaque at all," said Kevin M. Johnson, MD, lead author of the study........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/12-2008/a-little-wine-boosts-omega-3-in-the-body.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/12-2008/a-little-wine-boosts-omega-3-in-the-body.html Fri, 08 May 2009 11:25:56 GMT Results from the European study IMMIDIET show that moderate wine intake is associated with higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids considered as protective against coronary heart disease. Moderate alcohol intake is associated with higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids in plasma and red blood cells. This is the major finding of the European study IMMIDIET that would be published in the recent issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, an official publication of the American Society for Nutrition and is already available on line (www.ajcn.org ). The study suggests that wine does better than other alcoholic drinks. This effect could be ascribed to compounds other than alcohol itself, representing a key to understand the mechanism lying behind the heart protection observed in moderate wine drinkers........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2008/gasping-helps-cardiac-arrest-victims-survive.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2008/gasping-helps-cardiac-arrest-victims-survive.html Fri, 08 May 2009 11:25:56 GMT People who witness an individual collapse suddenly and unexpectedly should perform uninterrupted chest compressions even if the patient gasps or breathes in a funny way, research from the Resuscitation Research Group at The University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center shows. The study is set to publish in the Nov. 24 online issue of Circulation, the official journal of the American Heart Association, http://circ.ahajournals.org........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2008/sex-differences-narrow-in-death-after-heart-attack.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2008/sex-differences-narrow-in-death-after-heart-attack.html Fri, 08 May 2009 11:25:56 GMT In recent years, women, especially younger women, experienced larger improvements in hospital mortality after myocardial infarction than men, as per a new study. Over the last decade some studies showed that younger women, but not older ones, are more likely to die in the hospital after MI than age-matched men. A team of scientists led by Emory University examined whether such mortality differences have declined in recent years........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2008/effective-heart-failure-treatments.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2008/effective-heart-failure-treatments.html Fri, 08 May 2009 11:25:56 GMT Do the biological underpinnings of heart failure share more in common with malignant tumors than other cardiovascular diseases? Research presented at American Heart Association meeting may show why heart failure therapys fail. A team of Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) scientists and heart specialists are presenting many studies at the American Heart Association conference that point toward new therapys for heart failure patients........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2008/damage-inflicted-during-cardiac-attacks.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2008/damage-inflicted-during-cardiac-attacks.html Fri, 08 May 2009 11:25:56 GMT Cholesterol crystals released in the bloodstream during a cardiac attack or stroke can damage artery linings much further away from the site of the attack, leaving survivors at greater risk than previously thought. George Abela, a doctor in Michigan State University's College of Human Medicine and chief of the Department of Medicine's cardiology section, is leading innovative research into the role that the crystallization and expansion of cholesterol play in heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular events in humans........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2008/supplements-andcardiovascular-disease.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2008/supplements-andcardiovascular-disease.html Fri, 08 May 2009 11:25:56 GMT Neither vitamin E nor vitamin C supplements reduced the risk of major cardiovascular events in a large, long-term study of male physicians, as per a research studyin the November 12 issue of JAMA The article is being released early online November 9 to coincide with the scientific presentation of the study findings at the American Heart Association meeting........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2008/new-risk-factor-for-cardiovascular-disease.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/11-2008/new-risk-factor-for-cardiovascular-disease.html Fri, 08 May 2009 11:25:56 GMT This release is available in French. Montreal, November 9th 2008 - A team of international scientists including researchers from the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and McGill University have discovered that having high levels of particular protein puts patients at increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease. The results of the study were so conclusive that the clinical trial had to be stopped before its scheduled completion date........ ]]>