http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/heart-watch-blog.html Heart watch blog From Heart watch blog Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:56:43 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/7-2008/elderly-with-coronary-artery-disease.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/elderly-with-coronary-artery-disease.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:56:43 GMT A new study from Duke University Medical Center finds that patients treated solely with medications after suffering from chest pain, heart attack or coronary artery disease are more likely to die during the first year following their initial hospitalization. "Patients managed medically without stenting or bypass surgery tend to be elderly and frail, and in some sense we feel they have been overlooked," says Matthew Roe, a heart specialist at Duke and the senior author of the study appearing in the recent issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Intervention "We wanted to find out what clinical factors were funneling them into a medicine-only group and what happened to them, when in comparison to patients who received stents and bypass procedures"........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/young-adults-with-prehypertension-and-atherosclerosis.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/young-adults-with-prehypertension-and-atherosclerosis.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:56:43 GMT Prehigh blood pressure during young adulthood is common and is linked to subsequent coronary atherosclerosis, as per a research studypublished in today's issue of Annals of Internal Medicine Scientists from the University of California, San Francisco, analyzed blood pressure measurements of 3,560 adults aged 18 to 30 from seven examinations over the course of 20 years. Nearly 20 percent (635) of the study participants developed prehigh blood pressure (systolic blood pressure 120 to 139 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure 80 to 89 mmHg) before the age of 35........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/alaskan-eskimos-high-rates-of-artery-plaque.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/alaskan-eskimos-high-rates-of-artery-plaque.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:56:43 GMT Alaskan Eskimos' significantly higher rates of fatty artery plaque than the general U.S. population may be due to unhealthy lifestyle habits, scientists report in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. Scientists observed that more than half of Alaskan Eskimo adults smoke, their level of physical activity has decreased from traditional levels, and their intake of saturated and trans fats, rather than heart-healthy omega 3 fatty acids (found in fish), has increased........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/screening-for-heart-disorders-in-competitive-athletes.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/screening-for-heart-disorders-in-competitive-athletes.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:56:43 GMT Athletes who take part in competitive sport should be screened for potentially fatal heart problems before they compete, as per a research studypublished on BMJ.com today. The findings show that a pre-participation screening programme, which involves checking the activity of the heart during exercise, would detect more athletes at risk of sudden cardiac death and save lives, say the authors........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/coronary-arterial-calcium-scan.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/coronary-arterial-calcium-scan.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:56:43 GMT Measuring calcium deposits in the heart's arteries can help predict overall death risk in American adults, even when they are elderly, as per a new study reported in the recent issue of Journal of the American College of Cardiology Matthew J. Budoff, M.D., one of the study's authors and a researcher at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (LA BioMed), said prior studies had found measuring coronary arterial calcium with computed tomography (CT) heart scans could predict overall death risks in most American adults........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/invasive-treatment-for-certain-coronary-syndromes.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/7-2008/invasive-treatment-for-certain-coronary-syndromes.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:56:43 GMT An analysis of previous studies indicates that among men and high-risk women with a certain type of heart attack or angina an invasive treatment strategy (such as cardiac catheterization) is associated with reduced risk of rehospitalization, heart attack or death, whereas low-risk women may have an increased risk of heart attack or death with this treatment, according to an article in the July 2 issue of JAMA....... ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2008/gene-therapy-for-heart-failure.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/6-2008/gene-therapy-for-heart-failure.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:56:43 GMT Could injecting a gene into a patient with severe heart failure reverse their disabling and life-threatening condition? Physician-researchers are setting out to answer that question in a first-ever clinical trial of gene treatment to treat severe heart failure. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center is the only center in the New York City area where the treatment is currently available........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/macadamia-nuts-for-healthy-heart.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/macadamia-nuts-for-healthy-heart.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:56:43 GMT Macadamia nuts included in a heart healthy diet reduced low-density cholesterol (bad cholesterol) and should be included among nuts with qualified health claims, as per researchers. "We looked at macadamia nuts because they are not currently included in the health claim for tree nuts, while other tree nuts are currently recommended as part of a heart healthy diet," says Dr. Amy E. Griel, a recent Penn State Ph.D. recipient in nutrition and now senior nutrition scientist at The Hershey Company. "Macadamia nuts have higher levels of monosaturated fats, like those found in olive oil compared with other tree nuts"........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/neuroprotective-effect-of-lovastatin.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/neuroprotective-effect-of-lovastatin.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:56:43 GMT High cholesterol levels are considered to be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease including stroke. Therefore, a number of cholesterol lowering drugs have been developed by pharmaceutical companies in recent years. One class of these drugs, statins, has been found to reduce the occurence rate of stroke and progression of Alzheimers disease when prophylactically administered........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/mutations-protect-against-hypertension.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/mutations-protect-against-hypertension.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:56:43 GMT Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) scientists have observed that rare mutations in three genes contribute to blood pressure variation in the general population. Typically the researchers had previously shown that mutations in the three salt handling genes cause several rare diseases that are characterized by low blood pressure. By sequencing DNA samples obtained from 3,125 people who are participating in the Framingham Heart Study, the scientists identified new functional mutations in these three genes that are likely to be carried by an estimated 100 million people worldwide........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/normal-weight-obesity-an-emerging-risk-factor.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/normal-weight-obesity-an-emerging-risk-factor.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:56:43 GMT More than half of American adults considered to have normal body weight in America have high body fat percentages -- greater than 20 percent for men and 30 percent for women -- as well as heart and metabolic disturbances, new Mayo Clinic research shows. The finding conflicts with the widely held belief that maintaining a normal weight automatically guards against disorders such as high levels of circulating blood fats and a tendency to develop metabolic syndrome, which often leads to type 2 diabetes........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/ecg-standards-should-be-revised-for-elderly.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/ecg-standards-should-be-revised-for-elderly.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:56:43 GMT Scientists at Mayo Clinic suggest that the established normal ranges for evaluating electrocardiograms for persons over 80 years old should be revisited. The recommendation comes as per a research findings published recently in the American Journal of Geriatric Cardiology. After analyzing readings from more than 700 patients 80 or older, the scientists discovered that the average cutoffs (beginning and end points) for measuring all three ECG intervals -- PR, QRS and QT -- were greater than the current established norms. The findings also showed that the intervals, while greater in general, were significantly higher in men. The intervals refer to the times between recorded peaks of the specific motions in a heartbeat as represented on an electrocardiogram........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/cannabis-based-medicines-may-help-smokers-to-quit.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/cannabis-based-medicines-may-help-smokers-to-quit.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:56:43 GMT Smokers trying to quit in the future could do it with the help of cannabis based medicines, according to research from The University of Nottingham. Teams of pharmacologists, studying the cannabis-like compounds which exist naturally in our bodies (endocannabinoids), are exploring the potential for medical treatment. This includes treating conditions as diverse as obesity, diabetes, depression and addiction to substances like nicotine........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/frequency-of-drinking-influence-mortality-risk.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/frequency-of-drinking-influence-mortality-risk.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:56:43 GMT How much and how often people drink not just the average amount of alcohol they consume over time independently influence the risk of death from several causes, as per a new study by scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). "Taken together, our results reinforce the importance of drinking in moderation. In drinkers who are not alcohol dependent, the majority of U.S. drinkers, alcohol quantity and frequency might be thought of as modifiable risk factors for mortality, the scientists conclude........ ]]> http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/depression-and-heart-attack-patients.html http://www.heart-watch-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/3-2008/depression-and-heart-attack-patients.html Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:56:43 GMT Depressed heart attack patients have a higher risk for sudden death in the months following a heart attack. Now a team led by scientists from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has observed that the risk continues for a number of years. "There's a two- to four-fold increase in a person's risk of dying following a heart attack if they also happen to be depressed," says Robert. M. Carney, Ph.D., lead author of the new study and professor of psychiatry at Washington University. "Previously we thought the impact of depression was strongest for the first three to six months following a heart attack and then gradually dropped off within a couple of years. Instead, we observed that the effect lasts for at least five years."....... ]]>