Heart Attack News and Research

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Commonly used painkillers for treating inflammation may increase the risk of heart attack

Patients should not stop taking the drugs involved - non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) - but further investigation into these treatments is needed, say the authors.

9 Jun 2005

New start-up to market test that predicts heart attack risk

PrognostiX, a start-up company based on Cleveland Clinic technology, has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin selling a diagnostic test capable of identifying patients who are in imminent danger of heart attack or death.

9 Jun 2005

Arena Pharmaceuticals issued new patent

Arena Pharmaceuticals has announced that it was issued U.S. patent number 6,902,902, entitled "Human G Protein-Coupled Receptors and Modulators Thereof for the Treatment of Metabolic-Related Disorders," by the U.S. Patent Office.

8 Jun 2005

Diabetes knowledge has little effect on improving outcomes

A new study by Duke Clinical Research Institute researchers finds little relationship between what a diabetic patient knows about the disease and control of its associated cardiovascular risk factors or how well the patient ultimately fares.

3 Jun 2005

Genetic variation alters response to anti-clotting drug warfarin

Millions of people take the anticoagulant drug warfarin to prevent harmful clotting after a heart attack, stroke, or major surgery. But the proper dose of warfarin can vary greatly and can be hard to predict.

1 Jun 2005

Diabetics more sensitive to cardiovascular effects from air pollution

People with diabetes may be at higher risk for cardiovascular problems when air pollution levels are higher, according to a new study of Boston-area residents. The ability of the blood vessels to control blood flow was impaired in adults with diabetes on days with elevated levels of particles from traffic and coal-burning power plants.

31 May 2005

Under prescribing of statins puts more people at risk of premature death

A new study out of Stanford School of Medicine says that cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins that can help prevent heart disease are still underprescribed for many at-risk patients.

31 May 2005

Fluorescence device to diagnose atherosclerosis and tumors

In a presentation at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Biophotonics Research and Technology Development Laboratory described recent progress on a device that stimulates, collects and measures light emissions from body tissues to diagnose critical atherosclerotic plaques (vulnerable plaques) and aggressive brain tumors.

29 May 2005

One in five patients hospitalized for heart attack experiences a major depression

According to the Hopkins cardiologists who conducted the study, these depressed patients are 50 percent more likely than other heart attack patients to need hospital care for a heart problem again within a year and three times as likely to die from a future attack or other heart-related conditions.

26 May 2005

New study shows that bypass surgery is more successful than stents in heart surgery

A study of nearly 60,000 patients has found that people with several clogged heart arteries did better if they had bypass surgery rather than a less-drastic procedure in which the blood vessels are propped open with tiny mesh cylinders called stents.

26 May 2005

'Bad' metabolism cloggs up arteries

Scientists are now saying that a 'bad' metabolism may explain why some people who have never smoked and do not have high cholesterol levels suffer from a potentially lethal build-up of plaque in the arteries.

26 May 2005

Increase in heart surgery mortality from SSRIs or depression?

Duke University Medical Center researchers have found that patients who were using a class of anti-depression drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) prior to undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery have significantly higher death and rehospitalization rates up to five years after the procedure than patients who were not on SSRIs.

26 May 2005

HIPAA privacy rule makes it harder, costlier to do research that improves the quality of medical care

New research reveals a clash between two of the biggest issues in health care today: protecting individual patients' privacy and improving the quality, safety and cost of medical care for all patients.

26 May 2005

Most serious side effects in statins may be higher in one of the newest drugs, rosuvastatin (Crestor)

A post-market analysis of cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins indicates that some of the most serious side effects may be higher in one of the newest drugs, rosuvastatin (Crestor). The drug is the strongest statin available because it has the greatest effect per milligram on low-density lipoprotein ("bad" cholesterol).

26 May 2005

Study shows how COX-2 inhibitors lead to heart disease

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers have found additional evidence that may help explain how selective inhibitors of COX-2 might predispose individuals to heart disease and stroke.

26 May 2005

Patients with metabolic syndrome and moderate calcium levels in the coronary arteries have greater chance of blocked arteries

Conditions such as abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol levels and high blood sugar are problematic enough for people all on their own.

26 May 2005

A diet rich in milk does not increase the risk of heart disease and stroke

The research team asked a representative sample of 764 men to weigh and record every item of food and drink they consumed for seven consecutive days. Just under 90% of the sample (665) produced complete and detailed diaries.

24 May 2005

New cholesterol drug Crestor causes safety concerns

A study by a leading medical journal has concluded that AstraZeneca's controversial drug Crestor produces more than twice as many side effects as other common cholesterol lowering treatments.

24 May 2005

Metabolic syndrome prevalent in heart attack patients

Nearly half of heart attack patients also met criteria for metabolic syndrome, putting them at a higher risk for development of heart failure, according to an article in the May 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

23 May 2005

Within six months, one in three patients fail to take cardiovascular risk-lowering medications as prescribed

Therapy that includes medications to reduce high blood pressure and to lower lipid levels can reduce risk for heart disease, but within six months, more than a third of patients fail to take one or both medications as prescribed, according to a study in the May 23 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

23 May 2005