Heart News and Research

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World Heart Federation, Daiichi Sankyo and Lilly Partner to improve cardiovascular health

The World Heart Federation, Daiichi Sankyo Company, and Eli Lilly announced today that they have partnered to improve cardiovascular health internationally. The organizations made the announcement at the 58th Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology in Orlando, Florida.

31 Mar 2009

Requirement for pediatric cardiac devices highlighted by off-label procedures

Nearly two-thirds of children who undergo routine interventional cardiology procedures -- those involving a catheter to treat structural disorders of the heart -- may be receiving treatment with a device that's being used for an off-label application.

30 Mar 2009

Study examines effect of heart surgery on employment

A new studying appearing in Congenital Heart Disease compares the careers and long-term occupational successes of men and women who underwent surgery for congenital heart disease to those of the general population.

30 Mar 2009

Study answers question of timing in use of eptifibatide

An international study to resolve a decade of debate over the best timing for administering an anti-clotting drug for certain heart patients has come up with an answer: It doesn't matter.

30 Mar 2009

New radiation-free targeted therapy detects and eliminates breast cancer tumors in mice

Combining a compound known as a gallium corrole with a protein carrier results in a targeted cancer therapy that is able to detect and eliminate tumors in mice with seemingly fewer side effects than other breast-cancer treatments, says a team of researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) and the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

30 Mar 2009

In lab supplements of lipoic acid lower triglyceride levels

Studies done with laboratory rats suggest that supplementation of their diet with lipoic acid had a significant effect in lowering triglycerides, which along with cholesterol levels and blood pressure are one of the key risk factors in cardiovascular disease.

30 Mar 2009

New model helps predict risk of new onset heart failure in the elderly

Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine created the Health ABC Heart Failure Model for predicting risk of new onset heart failure in the elderly.

30 Mar 2009

Eye cells believed to be retinal stem cells are misidentified

Cells isolated from the eye that many scientists believed were retinal stem cells are, in fact, normal adult cells, investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have found.

30 Mar 2009

Environment plays role in hypoplastic left heart syndrome

A congenital heart disease that often leads to death in newborns is significantly more common during the summer, leading researchers to believe that the environment, and not just genes that affect the heart, may play a role in causing "mini-epidemics" of this disease.

30 Mar 2009

Typical Western diet is a recipe for colon cancer

A typical Western diet, rich in meat and fats and low in complex carbohydrates, is a recipe for colon cancer, Professor Stephen O'Keefe from the University of Pittsburgh, USA, told the Society for General Microbiology meeting at Harrogate today (Tuesday 31 March).

30 Mar 2009

Steroids and antihistamines alleviate clopidogrel-related allergic reaction symptoms

A clinical study of cardiac patients who suffered an allergic reaction to the widely-prescribed drug clopidogrel, also known by the pharmaceutical name Plavix, found that treatment with a combination of steroids and antihistamines can alleviate the allergic reaction symptoms thereby allowing patients to remain on the drug, say doctors from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

30 Mar 2009

Post heart attack, bone marrow stem cells increase blood flow within heart

Patients treated with their own bone marrow stem cells after a heart attack experienced increased circulation within the heart, a study by Emory University School of Medicine physicians has found.

30 Mar 2009

Missing enzyme GNSOR conveys major heart protection in pre-clinical work

Mice born without a certain enzyme can resist the normal effects of a heart attack and retain nearly normal function in the heart's ventricles and still-oxygenated heart tissue, according to a study by researchers at Duke University Medical Center.

30 Mar 2009

New York Times examines challenges faced by a Minneapolis hospital that treats many Somali, Hispanic patients

The New York Times on Sunday profiled the Hennepin County Medical Center, a Minneapolis-based hospital that "offers an extraordinary vantage point on the ways immigrants are testing the American medical establishment."

30 Mar 2009

$78 billion spent for heart disease care in 2006

Opening blocked arteries, trying to keep heart attack victims alive, fixing defective heart valves, and treating other heart ailments cost $78 billion in 2006 - roughly 8 percent of the more than $1 trillion spent on all medical care for the community population, according to the latest News and Numbers from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

30 Mar 2009

Researchers find direct link between oxidative stress and inflammatory signals in the blood

The finding could lead to improved strategies for preventing several diseases by including antioxidants in the diet and for reducing the impact of inflammation in critically ill patients by adding cysteine to intravenous or tube feeding.

30 Mar 2009

Targeted drug therapy prevents exercise-induced arrhythmias

A 12-year-old Dutch boy - bedridden for three years because of an inherited cardiac arrhythmia syndrome - can now join his friends on the soccer field thanks to a discovery made by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers.

30 Mar 2009

Corthera's Relaxin in acute heart failure shows promising results

Corthera Inc. has announced that results from Pre-RELAX-AHF, the Phase II portion of a Phase II/III multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled international study, demonstrated promising efficacy and safety for relaxin, the company's investigational drug for treatment of acute heart failure (AHF).

30 Mar 2009

Drug-coated stents lower risk of heart attack and death

Heart disease patients 65 and older who receive stents coated with medicine to prevent blockages are more likely to survive and less likely to suffer a heart attack than people fitted with stents not coated with medication, according to a new study supported by HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the American College of Cardiology's National Cardiovascular Data Registry.

30 Mar 2009

Nile Therapeutics update on phase II CD-NP trial for acute heart failure

Nile Therapeutics, Inc. has announced that, in the course of reviewing the Investigational New Drug (IND) application materials that Nile submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to support the initiation of the Company's Phase IIb clinical trial with CD-NP for the treatment of acute heart failure, the FDA has placed CD-NP on clinical hold.

30 Mar 2009