Coronary arterial calcium scan and death risk in the elderlyMeasuring 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........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 7/2/2008 10:19:46 PM)
Invasive treatment for certain coronary syndromesAn 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
Although an invasive strategy is........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 7/1/2008 9:33:15 PM)
Neuroprotective effect of lovastatinHigh 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.
In a recent paper reported in the Journal of Alzheimers........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 4/9/2008 10:07:23 PM)
Rare genetic mutations protect against hypertensionHoward 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........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 4/6/2008 8:11:44 PM)
ECG standards should be revised for elderlyScientists 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........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 3/16/2008 9:51:23 PM)
Quantity and frequency of drinking influence mortality riskHow 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........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 3/4/2008 6:06:32 PM)
Low-fat diets to reduce risk of heart diseaseLow-fat diets are more effective in preserving and promoting a healthy cardiovascular system than low-carbohydrate, Atkins-like diets, as per a new study by scientists at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
The study, reported in the February edition of the scientific journal Hypertension, was led by David D. Gutterman, M.D., Northwestern Mutual Professor of Cardiology, professor of medicine and physiology, and senior associate........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 3/2/2008 9:03:45 PM)
Swift System For Heart Attack Care Improves TreatmentHeart attack patients received lifesaving care up to an hour sooner after an Indiana hospital implemented a novel protocol to rapidly activate the cardiac catheterization lab, scientists reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
In comparison to the traditional protocol, patients arrived at the cardiac catheterization lab ("cath lab") sooner for artery-opening procedures, had less heart damage and shorter hospital........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 2/11/2008 8:29:18 PM)
Woman is first in region to receive new heart valveA 78-year-old St. Louis woman was the first patient in this region to receive an experimental device to replace her defective aortic valve without opening the chest wall or using a heart-lung machine. This procedure waccording toformed by Washington University cardiologists at Barnes-Jewish Hospital on Jan. 15.
The woman is an initial participant in a national multicenter trial to evaluate the effectiveness of the new device. If proven........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 2/7/2008 10:08:47 PM)
A healthy smile may promote a healthy heartEach year, cardiovascular disease kills more Americans than cancer. And while most people are aware that lifestyle choices such as eating right, getting enough exercise and quitting smoking can help prevent cardiovascular disease, they may not know that by just brushing and flossing their teeth each day, they might also be avoiding this potentially lethal condition.
An article reported in the recent issue of the Journal of Periodontology........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 1/8/2008 9:43:06 PM)
New insights into deadly heart rhythm disorderEvery year, 300,000 Americans die suddenly when, out of the blue, a storm of electrical activity arises within their heart muscle so violent and so abrupt that their hearts just stop beating. These tragic and dramatic sudden cardiac deaths strike people young and old, often without warning.
But despite this, researchers still dont understand just what causes a hearts electrical system to suddenly go so berserk. They have a name for the........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 12/20/2007 9:55:57 PM)
Study of young women with heart diseaseThe largest, most comprehensive study of young women with heart attacksVIRGO (Variation in Recovery: Role of Gender on Outcomes in Young AMI patients)was recently launched at Yale School of Medicine with a $9.7 million National Institutes of Health grant.
This is the first study to focus on this high riskand highly unstudiedgroup. said Yale School of Public Health Associate Professor Judith Lichtman, co-principal investigator of the study.........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 12/18/2007 9:16:19 PM)
Implanting embryonic cells into damaged heartsWhen scientists at Cornell, the University of Bonn and the University of Pittsburgh transplanted living embryonic heart cells into cardiac tissue of mice that had suffered heart attacks, the mice became resistant to cardiac arrhythmias, thereby avoiding one of the most dangerous and fatal consequences of heart attacks.
The discovery, reported in this week's issue of Nature, has profound implications for using cell-transplant therapies to........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 12/5/2007 8:55:00 PM)
Progress in coronary disease death ratesBefore you plop in front of the television for a day of football, pizza and beer, you might consider this: New research shows that in young adults, decades of hard-won progress in reducing the risk of heart disease appears to be stalling, as recent death rates from coronary disease remain almost unchanged in young men and may even be increasing in women.
The research, conducted at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta,........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 11/19/2007 8:13:10 PM)
Pollution from Marine Vessels Linked to Heart and Lung DiseasePollution from marine shipping causes approximately 60,000 premature cardiopulmonary and lung cancer deaths around the world each year, as per a report scheduled to appear in the Dec. 15 issue of Environmental Science and Technology, the journal of the American Chemical Society.
The report benchmarks for the first time the number of annual deaths caused globally by pollution from marine vessels, with coastal regions in Asia and Europe the........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 11/7/2007 7:57:03 PM)
Risk factor for heart attack patientsIf you go to the hospital within one to two hours of the onset of symptoms of a heart attack, your chances of getting proper therapy are nearly 70 percent greater than those who wait 11 to 12 hours before seeking therapy, as per results presented today at the American Heart Associations Scientific Sessions 2007 in Orlando, Fla.
This research should emphasize to patients that getting help immediately, by calling 911, gives them the best........Go to the Heart-news-blog (Added on 11/5/2007 10:25:07 PM)
After heart attack most patients stop taking life-saving drugsRecovery from heart attacks is best served by continuing to take prescribed medications. Yet more than half of patients who have had a heart attack stop taking these lifesaving medications within three years, as per results from a Mayo Clinic study presented today at the American Heart Associations Scientific Sessions 2007 in Orlando, Fla.
The Mayo data also show that in the short term, smokers are more likely to discontinue taking all of........Go to the Heart-news-blog (Added on 11/5/2007 9:20:49 PM)
Link between pre-eclampsia and heart diseaseTwo studies, published together on bmj.com today, add further weight to the theory that pre-eclampsia and cardiovascular diseases may share common causes or mechanisms.
The first study finds that women who have had pre-eclampsia during pregnancy have a more than two fold higher risk of heart disease in later life, while the second shows that women with cardiovascular risk factors that are present years before pregnancy may be predisposed to........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 11/1/2007 10:12:10 PM)
Cholesterol transporter to vascular diseaseLow-density lipoprotein (LDL), a transporter of cholesterol, may also contribute to vascular diseases by a previously unidentified mechanism, as per a report published online this week in EMBO reports. The study reveals a link between native LDL (nLDL) and the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 1 (VEGFR1), which plays a central role in blood vessel formation.
LDL is responsible for transporting cholesterol from the liver to........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 10/25/2007 10:08:10 PM)
Are women at greater risk from angioplasty?Research will be reported at TCT 2007, the annual scientific symposium of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), that demonstrates that early intervention saves lives in women who have a heart attack or unstable chest pain.
Responding to media reports of recent studies that emphasized the dangers of angioplasty in women in comparison to men, Dr. Alexandra J. Lansky, MD, Director of the Angiographic Core Laboratory and the Women's........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 10/19/2007 5:00:25 AM)
|
|
Screening for heart disorders in competitive athletesAthletes 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.
One young competitive athlete dies every three........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 7/3/2008 9:06:37 PM)
First gene therapy for heart failure offered at NewYork-PresbyterianCould 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.
Patients enrolled in the........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 6/18/2008 8:41:15 PM)
Macadamia nuts for healthy heart 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........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 4/13/2008 9:35:46 PM)
Normal weight obesity: An emerging risk factorMore 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........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 3/27/2008 9:19:43 PM)
Cannabis based medicines may help smokers to quitSmokers 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.
........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 3/9/2008 5:21:10 PM)
Depression And Heart Attack PatientsDepressed 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........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 3/3/2008 8:33:28 PM)
Heart attack rates fall following national smoking bansFrench scientists announced a striking 15% decrease in admissions of patients with myocardial infarction to emergency wards since the public ban on smoking came into effect in restaurants, hotels and casinos in France last January. The announcement was made on 23 February by the National Sanitary Institute. Similar results were published in Italy on 12 February by the Environmental Health Authority: scientists in Rome found an 11.2 percent........Go to the Heart-news-blog (Added on 2/26/2008 10:34:45 PM)
Uncertain About Care for Heart Failure PatientsLess than one fourth of physicians specializing in geriatrics, internal or family medicine or cardiology believe they can accurately predict the whether patients with heart failure are at risk of dying, new Saint Louis University research found.
The ability to determine whether patients are within six months of death is crucial to clinical care, impacting key patient-care decisions such as therapeutic approaches and referral for palliative........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 2/11/2008 8:15:52 PM)
Increased risk of heart attack for who are resistant to aspirinBeing resistant to aspirin makes patients four times more likely to suffer a heart attack, stroke or even die from a pre-existing heart condition, as per a research studypublished on bmj.com today.
The study relates to patients who are prescribed aspirin long term as a way of preventing clots from forming in the blood.
Patients who are labelled aspirin resistant have blood cells (platelets) that are not affected in the same way as those........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 1/17/2008 10:23:50 PM)
High Blood Pressure In Older AdultsResearchers have identified the gene that sets off a sequence of events in the blood vessels of otherwise healthy adults that can lead to high blood pressure. The disease process eventually makes conditions in vessels ripe for the creation of blockages that can cause heart attacks, strokes and circulatory problems.
The finding in a study led by Ohio State University scientists might lead to new therapeutic options for high blood pressure,........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 1/10/2008 11:05:26 PM)
Congestive heart failure leads to greater disabilityMedical breakthroughs in recent decades have allowed heart attack survivors and other heart-disease patients to live longer. But as their hearts decline into congestive heart failure, an increasing number will experience disability and the need for nursing-home care.
A new study from the University of Michigan Health System and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System sheds light on the degree of disability among people with CHF, as well as the........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 1/7/2008 11:08:24 PM)
Abdominal fat distribution predicts heart diseaseAbdominal obesity is a strong independent risk factor for heart disease, and using the waist-hip ratio rather than waist measurement alone is a better predictor of heart disease risk among men and women, researchers reported according to a research findings published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
In the study, researchers also looked at whether the association between fat distribution and heart disease risk was........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 12/10/2007 10:46:12 PM)
Genes protect against heart damageA series of genes that protect cells from the powerful, common chemotherapeutic agent doxorubicin has been identified by scientists working to understand how the drug also can destroy the heart.
We found a series of genes that are very important for cell survival in the face of doxorubicin, says Dr. Hernan Flores-Rozas, cancer researcher at the Medical College of Georgia Cancer Center. At the moment you start inactivating these genes, the........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 12/3/2007 10:08:30 PM)
Mature Heart Cell Potential In Embryonic Stem CellsIn a new study, UC Davis scientists report the first functional evidence that heart cells derived from human embryonic stem cells exhibit one of the most critical properties of mature adult heart cells, an important biological process called excitation-contraction coupling.
The finding gives researchers hope that these cells can one day be coaxed into becoming functionally viable cells safe for transplantation into the damaged hearts of........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 11/27/2007 10:39:05 PM)
Nitrate-rich foods may help in heart attack survivalNitrite/nitrate found in vegetables, cured meats and drinking water may help you survive a heart attack and recover quicker, as per a pre-clinical study led by a cardiovascular physiologist at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Findings are reported in the Nov. 12 early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Mice fed an extra helping of nitrite and nitrate fared much better following a........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 11/12/2007 10:13:50 PM)
CPR guidelines Improve cardiac arrest outcomeA new seven-city study on the impact of new CPR techniques supports the widespread use of the American Heart Associations new 2005 CPR guidelines, as per the study authors in a presentation at the AHAs Scientific Sessions November 4 in Orlando. Lead author, Tom P. Aufderheide, MD, Professor of Emergency Medicine, and Director of the Resuscitation Research Center in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in........Go to the Heart-news-blog (Added on 11/7/2007 4:57:54 AM)
Aging heart changes shape, shrinksScientists at Johns Hopkins have evidence to explain why the supposedly natural act of aging is by itself a very potent risk factor for life-threatening heart failure.
In a study to be presented Nov. 4 at the American Heart Associations (AHA) annual Scientific Sessions in Orlando, Fla., the Hopkins team analyzed more than a half-dozen measurements of heart structure and pumping function to assess minute changes in the hearts of 5,004 men and........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 11/4/2007 9:01:47 PM)
Quality of care for heart attackImplementation of a program in North Carolina to increase the rate of coronary reperfusion (restoring blood flow to the heart muscle) for heart attack significantly improved the quality of care these patients received, as per a research studyin JAMA being released early online to coincide with its release at the American Heart Associations annual meeting. The study would be reported in the November 28 print issue of JAMA.
ST-segment........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 11/4/2007 2:45:50 PM)
Heart attacks, pneumonia falls short of national goalsEmergency departments across the nation are failing to meet national goals in treating a number of heart attack and pneumonia patients, as per a research studyby Johns Hopkins scientists reported in the recent issue of Academic Emergency Medicine.
In a survey that also found care levels dependent on race, geography and type of health insurance, the researchers studied records of 1,492 heart attack patients and 3,955 pneumonia patients seen........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 10/31/2007 6:48:13 PM)
Obese children show early signs of heart diseaseChildren who are obese or who are at risk for obesity show early signs of heart disease similar to obese adults with heart disease, a study by scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has found.
"Based on this study, these subtle markers can help us predict who could be at risk for heart disease and heart attacks," said Angela Sharkey, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics at Washington University School of........Go to the Heart-watch-blog (Added on 10/17/2007 8:25:04 PM)
|
