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Fish oil supplements prevent declines in heart rate variability

A two-gram fish oil supplement given daily to elderly persons prevented a decline in heart rate variability caused by tiny, dangerous airborne pollutant particles. Heart rate variability, a measure of the autonomic nervous system's regulation of the heart, is an independent risk factor for cardiac arrhythmias, heart attack or sudden death.

15 Dec 2005

Fibroblast research could lead to alternatives to implanted electronic pacemakers

In guinea pig experiments, Johns Hopkins scientists fused common connective tissue cells taken from lungs with heart muscle cells to create a safe and effective biological pacemaker whose cells can fire on their own and naturally regulate the muscle's rhythmic beat.

5 Dec 2005

New York-Presbyterian Hospital offers Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) Therapy

New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center is the first in the greater New York City-area to offer Vagus Nerve Stimulation (VNS) Therapy as a long-term treatment specifically approved by the FDA for treatment-resistant depression (TRD).

7 Nov 2005

How the brain tracks time is essential to understanding all its functions

The brain is a "time machine," assert Duke neuroscientists Catalin Buhusi and Warren Meck. And understanding how the brain tracks time is essential to understanding all its functions. The brain's internal clocks coordinate a vast array of activities from communicating, to orchestrating movement, to getting food, they said.

30 Oct 2005

Innovative new treatment for moderate to severe heart failure

Cardiologists at Beth Israel Medical Center are currently enrolling patients in an investigational study that is looking at the safety and efficacy of an innovative new treatment for moderate to severe heart failure, in which a unique pacemaker-like device helps strengthen the heart's pumping power

26 Sep 2005

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) therapy for treatment-resistant depression proves effective for some patients

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) therapy, a treatment recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment-resistant depression, produced a positive response in more than 25 percent of patients in a national, yearlong study led by UT Southwestern Medical Center psychiatrists

31 Aug 2005

Beta-blockers top choice for prevention and rate control for postoperative atrial fibrillation

The American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) has released the first evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for the prevention and management of postoperative atrial fibrillation (AF) after cardiac surgery.

9 Aug 2005

For over 70's dual pacemakers no better

British researchers say that for people over 70, pacemakers that stimulate only one part of the heart are just as effective as newer and more expensive devices that apply electricity to two of the heart's four chambers.

14 Jul 2005

Circadian clock gene also plays pivotal role in drug addiction

The gene that regulates the body's main biological clocks also may play a pivotal role in drug addiction, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

13 Jun 2005

Implantable medical device that lowers blood pressure

Doctors at the University of Rochester Medical Center are the first in the nation to implant an investigational medical device that lowers blood pressure by activating the body's natural blood pressure regulation systems.

3 Apr 2005

Patients can now swallow pill-sized, disposable cameras to help diagnose diseases of the esophagus

Patients can now swallow pill-sized, disposable cameras to help gastroenterologists diagnose and evaluate diseases of the esophagus, or swallowing tube. This new diagnostic tool is a further modification of capsule endoscopy, which has been used clinically since late 2001 to examine the small intestines.

15 Mar 2005

Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide needed by the brain's biological clock to coordinate daily rhythms

A biologist at Washington University in St. Louis is giving the VIP treatment to laboratory mice in hopes of unraveling more clues about our biological clock.

7 Mar 2005

Unique study of the use of deep brain stimulation

Canadian researchers have seen promising results from a unique study of the use of deep brain stimulation (DBS), in severely depressed patients resistant to standard treatments.

28 Feb 2005

NICE promotes use of dual-chamber pacemakers for treating bradycardia

In new medical guidance for England and Wales published today, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) promotes the expanded use of dual-chamber pacemakers for treating slow heart rhythms, called bradycardia, which affect an estimated 100,000 people in the UK.

23 Feb 2005

First evidence of cardiac progenitor cells

The first evidence of cardiac progenitor cells – rare, specialized stem cells located in the newborn heart of rats, mice and humans – has been shown by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine. The cells are capable of differentiation into fully mature heart tissue.

10 Feb 2005

Wireless technology does not affect pacemakers and defibrillators

With the dynamic evolution of wireless technology, Mayo Clinic researchers have been concerned about the potential effects of electromagnetic interference on heart pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators.

22 Dec 2004

Biological clock affects the patterns of heart-rate control in healthy individuals

In a newly reported, first-ever finding, physicists from Boston University and physiologists from Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have found that the body’s biological clock affects the patterns of heart-rate control in healthy individuals independent of sleep/wake cycle or other behavior influences.

21 Dec 2004

Pacemakers could play a future role in protecting epilepsy patients

Results of a UK study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET highlight how interruptions to the heart’s rhythm is an under-reported consequence of epileptic seizures, and that the use of cardiac pacemakers by some epilepsy patients could play a future role in protecting against sudden unexplained death.

20 Dec 2004

Discovery of gene mutation in fruit flies that alters sensitivity to crack cocaine

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and New York University have discovered a gene mutation in fruit flies that alters sensitivity to crack cocaine and also regulates their internal body clock.

23 Nov 2004

Heart arrhythmias easily treated, yet few know risks

Since she was a young girl, Sandra Moore, 46, of Glen Ellyn, Ill., had episodes every few months when her heart started racing.

9 Nov 2004