Vascular News and Research

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Free vascular health checks for the over 40's promises to save 2,000 lives each year

A scheme whereby everyone between the age of 40 to 74 will be given free health screening for vascular diseases is to be introduced in Britain next year.

3 Apr 2008

Angioplasty and stenting for renal artery lesions

The largest-ever randomized study to evaluate the effectiveness of catheter-based interventions in patients with narrowing of the renal artery has shown that angioplasty and stenting offer no benefit over medical therapy.

2 Apr 2008

ExoSeal vascular plug gets good reviews in ECLIPSE study

A new bioabsorbable plug that seals the arterial puncture site used for threading catheters into the body during diagnostic angiography and interventional procedures significantly shortens bleeding time and enables patients to get up and walk around far sooner than when manual compression is applied to the groin.

2 Apr 2008

Researchers publish MRI images of genes in action in the living brain

Biologists have just confirmed what poets have known for centuries: eyes really are windows of the soul—or at least of the brain.

1 Apr 2008

Largest ever analysis of DES data demonstrates safety, efficacy in on-and-off-label use

The Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF) will present results of the largest meta-analysis to date comparing mortality rates for drug-eluting stents (DES) versus bare metal stents (BMS) at the Drug-Eluting Stent Revolution VII meeting tomorrow evening in Chicago.

31 Mar 2008

Stem cells from hair follicles may help 'grow' new blood vessels

For a rich source of stem cells to be engineered into new blood vessels or skin tissue, clinicians may one day look no further than the hair on their patients' heads, according to new research published earlier this month by University at Buffalo engineers.

31 Mar 2008

Next-generation nanomedicine

In an article featured on the cover of the March issue of Nature Nanotechnology, Mauro Ferrari, Ph.D., of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, presented a proof-of-concept study on a new multistage delivery system (MDS) for imaging and therapeutic applications. This discovery could go a long way toward making injectable drugs more effective.

27 Mar 2008

Methamphetamine use and pulmonary arterial hypertension

The Pulmonary Hypertension Association (PHA), in conjunction with leading pulmonary hypertension specialists, has announced the launch of an educational campaign to raise awareness of the association between pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and stimulant use, particularly methamphetamine use.

24 Mar 2008

Discovery of new effect for insulin

Researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center have shown that insulin has a previously unknown effect that plays a role in aging and lifespan, a finding that could ultimately provide a mechanism for gene manipulations that could help people live longer and healthier lives.

24 Mar 2008

Hispanics with clogged arteries at greatest risk of stroke, heart attack

Hispanics who have even a small amount of plaque build-up in the neck artery that supplies blood to the brain are up to four times more likely to suffer or die from a stroke or heart attack than Hispanics who do not have plaque, according to a study published in the March 19, 2008, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

20 Mar 2008

New technique improves outcome for living donor liver transplants

The University of Alberta Hospital (UAH) is one of only a few centers in Canada that perform living donor liver transplantation, a surgical procedure developed in the late 1980s that expands the organ donor pool. About 80 liver transplants are done a year in Alberta, 10 of those being living-donor.

19 Mar 2008

New interventional radiology treatment shows promise for complications from bone marrow, stem cell tranplants

The standard treatment to treat graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) after bone marrow or cord blood transplant is intravenous (IV) steroids that alter the immune response; however, it is not always effective and failure results in very high mortality.

19 Mar 2008

Compound present naturally in grape skin fights the complications of diabetes

Research carried out by scientists at the Peninsula Medical School in the South West of England has found that resveratrol, a compound present naturally in grape skin, can protect against the cellular damage to blood vessels caused by high production of glucose in diabetes, according to a paper published in the science journal "Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism" this week.

19 Mar 2008

Blood vessel protein reverses macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy in mice

Two major eye diseases and leading causes of blindness—age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy can be reversed or even prevented by drugs that activate a protein found in blood vessel cells, researchers at the University of Utah School of Medicine and several other institutions have announced in a new study.

17 Mar 2008

Toddlers affected most by secondhand smoke exposure at home

Secondhand smoke in the home appears to induce markers for heart disease as early as the toddler years, researchers reported at the American Heart Association's 48th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.

14 Mar 2008

Researchers make case for standardized analysis of cardiac imaging

For accuracy's sake, medical professionals should use the same software for comparing and analyzing diagnostic heart images taken from different time periods and laboratories, a team of researchers has concluded.

14 Mar 2008

Study shows Parkinson's disease drug dopamine might work in cancer patients

A study published in the March 13 online issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation shows that dopamine, a drug currently used to treat Parkinson's disease and other illnesses, also might work in cancer patients.

14 Mar 2008

Damaged veins heal faster with heparin treatment, laboratory study finds

A commonly used medication that prevents blood clots from forming may also prevent existing clots from damaging delicate vein walls and may accelerate healing in a clot-damaged area of vein wall, according to new research from the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center.

14 Mar 2008

Is deep-vein thrombosis lurking in your legs?

They kill 300,000 people a year - but most of them could be prevented. They strike more than a million people every year, most of them out of the blue - and half without causing symptoms.

14 Mar 2008

World's newest flexible drug-eluting stent used by Methodist cardiologists

A more flexible drug-eluting stent studied in clinical trials at the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center has been approved by the FDA, and Methodist physicians were the first in Houston to implant the new device.

12 Mar 2008