Blood Clot News and Research

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A Blood Clot is a mass of blood that forms when blood platelets, proteins, and cells stick together. When a blood clot is attached to the wall of a blood vessel, it is called a thrombus. When it moves through the bloodstream and blocks the flow of blood in another part of the body, it is called an embolus.

Need for a national database of epidural complications

Researchers have called for a national database to be set up to identify major complications arising from epidural pain relief after a small number of serious problems were identified during a six-year UK study, according to the April issue of Anaesthesia.

4 Apr 2007

Leg pain can mean peripheral arterial disease

David Dow thought he was having back problems, and that his legs were hurting as a result. As it turns out, that pain may have saved his life.

4 Apr 2007

New way of making artificial lungs more efficient

Artificial lungs are cumbersome beasts, but they can be a lifesaver for people with serious respiratory diseases or lung damage. Sitting outside the body, they take over the task of soaking up excess carbon dioxide from the blood and infusing it with oxygen.

4 Apr 2007

Postmenopausal hormone therapy and risk of cardiovascular disease by age and years since menopause

Secondary analyses of findings from the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) suggest that women who begin hormone therapy within 10 years of menopause may have less risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) due to hormone therapy than women farther from menopause.

3 Apr 2007

Embolic protection and platelet inhibition during renal artery stenting

High blood pressure is the most common chronic medical condition in the United States, and the most common identifiable cause is narrowing of a kidney artery, called renal artery stenosis.

3 Apr 2007

Long-term safety of drug-eluting stents in off-label use

Research presented at the American College of Cardiology's Innovation in Intervention: i2 Summit 2007 in New Orleans, La, paints a picture of the "real world" use of drug-eluting stents and offers new insight into the connection between blood clotting, or thrombosis, in the stent - a dangerous complication - and adherence and responsiveness to anti-clotting medication.

3 Apr 2007

Advances in clinical cardiology

Three studies being presented at the American College of Cardiology's Innovation in Intervention: i2 Summit 2007 in New Orleans, La., highlight the breadth of research propelling advances in clinical cardiology.

3 Apr 2007

New blood thinner thrombin-receptor antagonist may work without bleeding risk

When studying a new blood thinner, one of the first signs the drug is working is seeing a slight increase in minor bleeding, nose bleeds and bruising, an inconvenient side effect of preventing the blood clots that are the leading cause of heart attack and stroke.

3 Apr 2007

Adding estradiol to a polymer-free rapamycin-eluting stent is not associated with any measurable benefit

Patients admitted to the hospital with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) are often treated with a catheter-based procedure known as percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), during which a stent is inserted into an occluded or narrowed coronary artery to restore blood flow to and from the heart.

2 Apr 2007

Xenotransplantation - what are the barriers?

Given the huge shortage of donor organs, researchers have been trying to find ways to transplant animal organs across different species (known as "xenotransplantation"), with the eventual aim of transplanting animal organs into humans.

2 Apr 2007

Scientists create small molecules to probe proteins deep inside cell membrane

Proteins, which form much of the molecular machinery required for life, are the targets of most drug molecules.

2 Apr 2007

Coronary procedure adds no benefit over 'optimal medical therapy' alone

Percutaneous coronary intervention plus optimal medical therapy does not improve outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease, compared with optimal medical therapy alone, according to study results presented at the 56th Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology in New Orleans, and published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.

1 Apr 2007

Drug-eluting stent use in heart patients determined more by insurance type

If you want the best technology available to relieve blocked blood flow to the heart, the choice is a drug-eluting stent.

31 Mar 2007

FDA approves Ceprotin to treat severe congenital protein C deficiency

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today licensed Ceprotin, the first biologic treatment for patients with a rare genetic defect that can cause a potentially life-threatening clotting disorder.

30 Mar 2007

Plavix appears to be safe during and after heart bypass

Heart surgeons don't have to choose between taking a coronary-bypass patient off the popular anti-clotting drug clopidogrel (Plavix) after off-pump heart bypass surgery or having the patient bleed excessively in the days following surgery, according to a new study by researchers at Jefferson Medical College.

28 Mar 2007

Medications plus lifestyle changes work as well as angioplasty to reduce deaths in stable heart-disease patients

Coronary revascularization with stenting or balloon angioplasty combined with optimal medical therapy is no more effective in preventing a heart attack, other major cardiovascular events or death in patients with stable heart disease, than optimal medical therapy alone, results of a new study conducted in 50 hospitals in the U.S. and Canada has shown.

27 Mar 2007

Treating sleep apnea with continuous positive airway pressure reduces incidence of stroke

Patients with moderate to severe sleep apnea who have significantly higher serum levels of inflammatory markers that serve as precursors to coronary artery disease, as well as lesions associated with silent brain infarction, have an elevated risk of stroke, according to a group of Japanese medical researchers.

19 Mar 2007