Blood Vessel News and Research

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Blood Vessels are tubes through which the blood circulates in the body. Blood vessels include a network of arteries, arterioles, capillaries, venules, and veins.

Flavanols in cocoa improve artery function, help relieve stress on heart

For people with diabetes, sipping a mug of steaming, flavorful cocoa may seem a guilty pleasure. But new research suggests that indulging a craving for cocoa can actually help blood vessels to function better and might soon be considered part of a healthy diet for the prevention of cardiovascular disease.

26 May 2008

High resolution confocal endomicroscopy probe system tells whether colon polyp is benign without removal

A probe so sensitive that it can tell whether or not a cell living within the human body is veering towards cancer development may revolutionize how future colonoscopies are done, say researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla.

21 May 2008

New lifesaving options come to Rochester for stroke

While Superbowl Sunday started out like any other Sunday for Webster resident Christine Skolnick, by kick-off time, things clearly went from bad to worse for the 42-year-old mother of two. An apparent stomach virus and mild headache at midday had, by 6 p.m., become deadly, as Skolnick's face drooped on her right side, and she had difficulty moving her right legs and arms.

20 May 2008

Erection problems may signal serious heart disease

Erectile dysfunction is always a matter of the heart, but new research shows that more than romance is at stake. Two new studies of men with type 2 diabetes found that erectile dysfunction (ED) was a powerful early warning sign for serious heart disease, including heart attack and death.

19 May 2008

Childhood and adolescent obesity impacts cardiac health

Study findings presented at the May 2008 Pediatric Academic Societies and Asian Society for Pediatric Research Joint Meeting indicate that childhood and adolescent obesity negatively impacts vascular endothelial function, which relates to cardiac health.

11 May 2008

The gender gap is alive and well in heart disease

... a new international study finds, with women differing from men on everything from symptoms to treatment in both heart attack and severe chest pain.

6 May 2008

Autonomous robot surgery a step closer

The day may be getting a little closer when robots will perform surgery on patients in dangerous situations or in remote locations, such as on the battlefield or in space, with minimal human guidance.

6 May 2008

Women lag in heart attack care, study finds

The gender gap is alive and unwell in heart disease, a new international study finds, with women differing from men on everything from symptoms to treatment in both heart attack and severe chest pain.

6 May 2008

Erythropoietin gene linked to severe diabetic eye, kidney diseases

Researchers at the John A. Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah and collaborative institutions have identified a gene called erythropoietin (EPO) that contributes to increased risk of severe diabetic eye and kidney diseases, called retinopathy and nephropathy.

6 May 2008

Scientists produce stem cells from ordinary mouse skin cells

Researchers in the United States say they have produced a stem cell made from ordinary mouse skin cells which they have coaxed into becoming three different types of heart and blood cells in mice.

1 May 2008

Alzheimer's and diabetes link

Diabetic individuals have a significantly higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease but the molecular connection between the two remains unexplained. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies identified the probable molecular basis for the diabetes - Alzheimer's interaction.

30 Apr 2008

Researchers create heart and blood cells from reprogrammed skin cells

Stem cell researchers at UCLA were able to grow functioning cardiac cells using mouse skin cells that had been reprogrammed into cells with the same unlimited properties as embryonic stem cells.

30 Apr 2008

FDA approves coronary artery plaque imaging device

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared for marketing a device that a doctor can use to see inside a blood vessel to assess the fat content of the plaque which builds up on the wall of the coronary arteries.

29 Apr 2008

Aggregates of red and white blood cells may contribute to sickle cell disease

It's long been known that patients with sickle cell disease have malformed, "sickle-shaped" red blood cells - which are normally disc-shaped - that can cause sudden painful episodes when they block small blood vessels.

28 Apr 2008

Exercise helps lower heart disease risk in overweight women

The risk of heart disease in women associated with being overweight or obese is reduced but not eliminated by higher levels of physical activity, according to a report in the April 28 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

28 Apr 2008

Discovery of new cell targets for preventing growth of breast and other tumors

Researchers at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered new targets for cancer treatment aimed at blocking a key step in tumor progression.

23 Apr 2008

Drug-releasing stent shows promise for improving outcomes in patients with coronary artery disease

For patients who underwent angioplasty to open narrowed coronary arteries, the use of stents releasing the drug everolimus reduced the rate of renarrowing of the arteries and significantly reduced the risk of major cardiac events, compared to the widely-used paclitaxel-releasing stents, according to a study in the April 23/30 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

22 Apr 2008

An atomic view of protein behind hereditary cerebral amyloid angiopathy

For the first time, researchers have peered deeply at the atomic level into the protein that causes hereditary cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) -- a disease thought to cause stroke and dementia.

22 Apr 2008

A stem cell type supposed to be crucial for angiogenesis and cancer growth does not exist?

It is widely believed that tumor angiogenesis and cancer growth critically depend on circulating endothelial precursor cells, mobilized from the bone marrow. The recent study from researchers at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and Stanford University, US, now suggests that a stem cell type supposed to be crucial for blood vessel formation and cancer growth does not actually exist.

22 Apr 2008

Discovery of fundamental mechanism of how tumour cells communicate

A new fundamental mechanism of how tumour cells communicate has just been discovered by the team of Dr. Janusz Rak at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) in collaboration with Dr Guha from the University of Toronto.

21 Apr 2008