Heart Disease News and Research

Latest Heart Disease News and Research

Studies examine effectiveness of CPAP in reducing risk of cardiovascular outcomes linked with OSA

Two studies that included adults with obstructive sleep apnea examined the effectiveness of reducing the risk of cardiovascular outcomes, including high blood pressure, by treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), according to the articles in the May 23/30 issue of JAMA.

23 May 2012

HeartWare receives expanded European label for Ventricular Assist System

HeartWare International, Inc., a leading innovator of less invasive, miniaturized circulatory support technologies revolutionizing the treatment of advanced heart failure, today announced that it has received an expanded European label for long-term use of the HeartWare Ventricular Assist System in all patients at risk of death from refractory, end-stage heart failure.

23 May 2012

Astrocytes appear to retaliate against AD

When brain cells start oozing too much of the amyloid protein that is the hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, the astrocytes that normally nourish and protect them deliver a suicide package instead, researchers report.

23 May 2012

Study provides new clues about health-damaging molecular changes by eating high-fat foods

A University of Michigan Health System study provides new clues about the health-damaging molecular changes set in motion by eating high-fat foods.

23 May 2012

FDA approves TMI’s Glider PTCA Catheter

TriReme Medical, Inc. (TMI) today announced approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the Glider PTCA Catheter, indicated for treating the stenotic portion of coronary arteries or bypass grafts to improve myocardial perfusion.

23 May 2012

Federal task force recommends dropping routine prostate cancer test

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force finds scant evidence that the PSA blood test saves lives and instead says unneeded treatment leads to serious problems, including impotence and incontinence.

23 May 2012

Mimotopes can help develop new diagnostic tests for sleeping sickness

Each year many thousands of Africans contract sleeping sickness. The cause is a unicellular parasite, a trypanosome, which is transmitted by the bite of tsetse flies. First the parasite multiplies in blood and lymph, while evading the human immune system. It then lodges in organs like heart and kidneys and finally in the brain. Patients become disoriented, their sleeping pattern disintegrates and they get motor and mental problems.

23 May 2012

Benefits of ICS treatment vary among children with differing demographic, clinical characteristics

A further analysis of a previously published National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) funded study of children with mild persistent asthma reports the relative benefits of inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) treatment varies among children with differing demographic and clinical characteristics.

23 May 2012

Special feature of Science journal highlights protein array technology

A special feature in this week's issue of the journal Science highlights protein array technology, touching on research conducted by Joshua LaBaer, director of the Biodesign Institute's Virginia G. Piper Center for Personalized Diagnostics.

23 May 2012

Exercise can add years to a person's life

A recent study has shown that exercise can add years to a person's life. Still, as we age it can become more tedious and sometimes more difficult to exercise.

23 May 2012

Inhibition of PBEF could be potential therapeutic target for pulmonary hypertension

Inhibition of pre-B Cell Colony-Enhancing Factor (PBEF) could be a potential therapeutic target for pulmonary hypertension (PH), according to a preclinical study in an animal model of PH.

23 May 2012

IACs may increase risk of arrhythmias in young individuals with asthma

Use of inhaled anticholinergics (IACs) has been associated with an increased risk of potentially dangerous heart arrhythmias among young asthma patients, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

23 May 2012

Excessive alcohol intake may increase of cognitive dysfunction, dementia in the elderly

Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other types of dementia are most common in the very elderly, and are associated with huge health costs. With a rapidly ageing population throughout the world, factors that affect the risk of cognitive decline and dementia are of great importance. A review paper by Kim JW et al published in Psychiatry Investig 2012;9:8-16 on the association between alcohol consumption and cognition in the elderly provides an excellent summary of the potential ways in which alcohol may affect cognitive function and the risk of dementia, both adversely and favourably as alcohol may have both a neuro toxic and neuro protective effect, depending on the dose and drinking pattern.

23 May 2012

International task force unveils revised definition of ARDS

An international task force this week unveiled a revised definition of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), a disease first recognized during the Vietnam War in casualties with limb injuries who had trouble breathing.

23 May 2012

Critically ill patients on antidepressants more likely to die

Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in Boston, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, have found that critically ill patients were more likely to die if they were taking the most commonly prescribed antidepressants when they were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU).

23 May 2012

Cooper Green installs Medsphere's OpenVista EHR

MedsphereSystems Corporation and Cooper Green Mercy Hospital today announced that Cooper Green has gone live on Medsphere's OpenVista open source electronic health record (EHR).

22 May 2012

Medtronic fourth quarter revenue increases 4% to $4.297 billion

Medtronic, Inc. today announced financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended April 27, 2012.

From Medtronic 22 May 2012

GE Healthcare, KUH partner to drive advances in cell therapy technologies

Karolinska University Hospital Sweden and GE Healthcare Life Sciences today announced a joint research collaboration to drive advances in technologies and workflows for use in the rapidly emerging field of cell therapy.

22 May 2012

SDB may increase risk of cancer mortality

Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurocognitive disorders. New studies show that it also implies a greater risk of developing tumors, and even dying from cancer.

22 May 2012

Bayer’s Nexavar Phase 3 trial on NSCLC does not meet primary endpoint

Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals and Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that a Phase 3 trial evaluating Nexavar (sorafenib) tablets in patients with advanced relapsed or refractory non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease progressed after two or three previous treatments, did not meet its primary endpoint of improving overall survival.

22 May 2012