Heart Disease News and Research

Latest Heart Disease News and Research

Lack of physical activity causes 1 in 10 deaths

A lack of physical activity, or people’s failure to spend 150 minutes a week doing moderate physical activity (eg, brisk walking for 30 minutes, 5 days a week), causes around 6–10% of four major non-communicable diseases (coronary heart disease [CHD], type 2 diabetes, and breast and colon cancer) worldwide, and was responsible for around 5.3 million of the 57 million deaths globally in 2008.

18 Jul 2012

Elderly may be undertreated for cardiac disease

Not enough elderly people are being prescribed statins, argue researchers in the BMJ.

17 Jul 2012

Ticagrelor ‘now on equal footing’ with other antiplatelets

The platelet aggregation inhibitor ticagrelor is now considered of equal effectiveness to clopidogrel and prasugrel for patients who have experienced a heart attack or have unstable angina, a report states.

17 Jul 2012

Arrhythmia finding could enhance COPD management

Arrhythmias could precede exacerbations in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, raising the possibility of a new target for management and treatment, say researchers.

17 Jul 2012

Specific therapy may cut pneumonia mortality in HIV babies

The high mortality rate associated with acute severe pneumonia-related respiratory failure in infants exposed to or infected with HIV can be reduced to 30% if a treatment plan involving antibiotics, ventilation, and fluid restriction is used, researchers report.

17 Jul 2012

Light reflexes during CPR may indicate survival chances

The presence of the papillary light reflex during cardiopulmonary resuscitation is associated with early survival and favorable neurologic status during recovery, suggest findings from a case series.

17 Jul 2012

Ticagrelor ‘now on equal footing’ with other antiplatelets

17 Jul 2012

Sorting rhinosinusitis symptoms by ‘SNOT-22’

The three leading symptoms for chronic rhinosinusitis are nasal blockage, alterations to smell/taste, and needing to blow the nose, report UK researchers.

17 Jul 2012

Trans fat ban in NYC can improve quality of meals purchased outside the home

By requiring commercial food establishments to replace trans fats with oils and spreads that are low in trans and saturated fats, New York City provides a good template for initiating public health measures to improve the quality of meals purchased outside the home, Tufts University Nutrition Scientist Alice H. Lichtenstein, DSc, writes in an editorial published July 17 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

17 Jul 2012

Johnson & Johnson second quarter sales decrease 0.7% to $16.5B

Johnson & Johnson today announced sales of $16.5 billion for the second quarter of 2012, a decrease of 0.7% as compared to the second quarter of 2011. Operational results increased 3.5% and the negative impact of currency was 4.2%.

17 Jul 2012

WCMC receives NHLBI grant to study smoking-induced COPD

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College were awarded a $6.5 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for a five-year investigation into metabolic changes occurring within airway epithelial cells in the lungs of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients caused by cigarette smoking. In addition, researchers aim to identify which cigarette smokers are at highest risk of developing COPD as well as novel biomarkers to assist in the development of new therapeutic treatments for the disease.

17 Jul 2012

Healthier levels of vitamin C can reduce inflammatory conditions

The recommended dietary allowance, or RDA, of vitamin C is less than half what it should be, scientists argue in a recent report, because medical experts insist on evaluating this natural, but critical nutrient in the same way they do pharmaceutical drugs and reach faulty conclusions as a result.

17 Jul 2012

High blood pressure associated with reduced mortality in extremely frail, elderly adults

A new study suggests that higher blood pressure is associated with lower mortality in extremely frail, elderly adults.

17 Jul 2012

Researchers begin to uncover important clues about SCAD

Spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD), a tear of the layers of the artery wall that can block normal blood flow into and around the heart, is a relatively rare and poorly understood condition. It often strikes young, otherwise healthy people -- mostly women -- and can lead to significant heart damage, even sudden death.

17 Jul 2012

AstraZeneca plans to conduct ticagrelor plus clopidogrel clinical trial for PAD

AstraZeneca today announced plans to conduct the EUCLID study, a global clinical trial involving 11,500 patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD), a condition affecting approximately 27 million people in Europe and North America.

17 Jul 2012

Tips to help minimize risks associated with acid reflux disease

While the overall death rates from several cancers such as breast and lung have gone down, there has been a meteoric rise in cases of esophageal cancer. Studies have shown that from 1975 to 2001, the incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma rose approximately sixfold in the United States (from four to 23 cases per million), a relative increase greater than that for melanoma, breast, or prostate cancer.

17 Jul 2012

Why is the incidence of gout increasing?

Gout has been described by the Daily Mail as something, “usually associated with port-swilling, over-fed elderly men of the 19th century”. (1) Recent research carried out at the Boston University School of Medicine, however, has found that the incidence of gout in the US is on the rise. (2) Thus, the condition is clearly not something that only affects this stereotype.

17 Jul 2012

U.S. News & World Report unveils 23rd annual Best Hospitals rankings

U.S. News & World Report has released its 23rd annual Best Hospitals rankings and a new hospital has seized the No. 1 spot.

17 Jul 2012

VHVI now offers new minimally invasive, catheter-based approach to dissolve pulmonary embolism

The Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute (VHVI) now offers a minimally invasive, catheter-based approach to dissolving pulmonary embolism, a potentially life-threatening blood clot that form elsewhere in the body and travels into the lungs.

17 Jul 2012

Cadherin-catenin-actin structure exerts force inside and between cells in living tissues

If you place certain types of living cells on a microscope slide, the cells will inch across the glass, find their neighbors, and assemble themselves into a simple, if primitive tissue. A new study at Stanford University may help explain this phenomenon, and then some, about the mechanical structure and behavior of complex living organisms.

17 Jul 2012