Heart Disease News and Research

Latest Heart Disease News and Research

Sports physicals don't dive deep enough into real issues that impact teen's health

Parenting a teenage athlete is a juggling act—monitoring homework, keeping up with practice and training schedules, weeks packed with competitions or games. It may seem like a never-ending "to do" list and that yearly sports physical can seems like just one more thing in a busy parent's life. But the quickest way of checking if off the list could be detrimental to a teen's health.

20 Apr 2012

New wiki of medical devices designed for resource-limited settings

In parts of the world without reliable electricity, a pedal-powered nebulizer could provide life-saving asthma treatments. Small wax-filled sleeping bags could keep premature infants warm. A salad spinner centrifuge for blood samples could help clinicians diagnose anemia.

20 Apr 2012

National award celebrates landmark discovery in gut flora and cardiovascular disease

Stanley Hazen, M.D., Ph.D., was recently honored with an inaugural Top 10 Clinical Research Achievement Award from an organization comprised of the nation's most acclaimed academic medical centers and other groups, in recognition of Dr. Hazen's Nature article, "Gut flora dependent metabolism of dietary phosphatidylcholine contributes to cardiovascular disease."

20 Apr 2012

First study to look at link between gender and mother's cardiac disease

Women with heart disease are more likely to give birth to female rather than male babies according to a new study presented today at the World Congress of Cardiology. The study found that three-quarters of the 216 children born to 200 pregnant women with diagnosed heart disease were female.

20 Apr 2012

New evidence helps explain additional health benefits of aspirin

New evidence is helping explain additional health benefits of aspirin. Researchers in Canada, Scotland and Australia have discovered that salicylate, the active ingredient in aspirin, directly increases the activity of the protein AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase), a key player in regulating cell growth and metabolism. AMPK which is considered a cellular fuel-gauge is switched on by exercise and the commonly used anti-diabetic medication metformin.

20 Apr 2012

Access to family planning services important for adolescent women

In a Huffington Post "Global Motherhood" opinion piece, UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehin writes, "It warms my heart to see that safe motherhood and women's reproductive health are finally being recognized as important development issues," but "millions of women in developing countries still lack even the most basic care during pregnancy," leading to maternal death and injury and hundreds of millions of women lack access to family planning services, including modern contraceptives.

20 Apr 2012

RHD patients seek treatment in the very late stages of disease

Patients with rheumatic heart disease (RHD) are being admitted to hospital too late to prevent the need for heart surgery, according to a new study carried out by doctors in Yemen and presented today at the World Congress of Cardiology.

20 Apr 2012

Chip-scale NIST sensor successfully measures human brain activity

A miniature atom-based magnetic sensor developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has passed an important research milestone by successfully measuring human brain activity. Experiments reported this week verify the sensor's potential for biomedical applications such as studying mental processes and advancing the understanding of neurological diseases.

20 Apr 2012

Viewpoints: Bishops find fault with GOP budget; Pelosi on court's role in health law

In February, the Catholic Church attempted to impose its opposition to birth control on its employees, upsetting Democrats and the left. This week, the Church is criticizing Republicans, acting in the highest tradition of its social mission by speaking out against spending cuts on programs for the poor.

20 Apr 2012

Omega-3 fatty acids inhibit detrimental effects of smoking on arterial function

Omega-3 fatty acids may help to reduce the physical harm caused by smoking, according to a new study presented today at the World Congress of Cardiology.

20 Apr 2012

Chinese scientists make significant breakthrough in animal cloning

Chinese scientists from BGI, the world's largest genomics organization, together with the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Shihezi University, Xinjiang province, made a significant breakthrough in animal cloning.

20 Apr 2012

Therapeutic hypothermia reduces in-hospital deaths among sudden cardiac arrest patients

Forced body cooling known as therapeutic hypothermia has reduced in-hospital deaths among sudden cardiac arrest patients nearly 12 percent between 2001 and 2009, according to a Mayo Clinic study being presented at the upcoming American Academy of Neurology 2012 Annual Meeting in New Orleans.

20 Apr 2012

ESC launches European Heart Journal: Acute Cardiovascular Care

The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) announced today the launch of the European Heart Journal: Acute Cardiovascular Care, the organisation's official journal of the ESC Working Group on Acute Cardiac Care.

20 Apr 2012

NALFD patients with modest alcohol intake are half as likely to develop NASH

People with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NALFD) who consume alcohol in modest amounts - no more than one or two servings per day - are half as likely to develop hepatitis as non-drinkers with the same condition, reports a national team of scientists led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.

20 Apr 2012

Physical activity reduces CVD mortality risk in patients with hypertension

In the study, all-cause and CVD mortality risks were found to be significantly higher among study participants that didn't exercise compared with active participants at all blood pressure levels. Moreover, the excess mortality risks of physical inactivity, when converted into a "blood pressure equivalence of physical activity" measurement, revealed that physical inactivity was similar to a rise in mortality risk equivalent to an increase in blood pressure of 40-50 mmHg.

20 Apr 2012

HDAC9 gene can lead to obesity-induced body fat dysfunction

Cardiac researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have found that a certain cellular pathway is linked to obesity-related disorders, like diabetes, heart disease and fatty liver disease.

20 Apr 2012

Optimism could benefit the heart: A review of studies

A Harvard School of Public Health review of more than 200 studies suggests that optimism is good for the heart. The researchers looked at studies that had recorded psychological well-being and cardiovascular health. This revealed that factors such as optimism, life satisfaction, and happiness appeared to be linked associated with a reduced risk of heart and circulatory diseases, regardless of a person's age, socio-economic status, smoking status or body weight. Disease risk was 50% lower among the most optimistic individuals.

19 Apr 2012

Study demonstrates far-reaching impact of voice disorders

Patients with voice problems have nearly as many days of short-term disability claim and work productivity losses as those with chronic conditions like asthma, heart disease and depression, according to new findings from Duke University Medical Center researchers. Per claim, voice disorders account for up to 40 lost workdays and about $3,400 in short-term disability payments annually.

19 Apr 2012

Doughnut hole is trouble spot for seniors on heart drugs, researchers find

A study documents that beneficiaries with cardiovascular conditions who reach the annual gap in coverage for prescription drugs, known as the doughnut hole, are more likely to stop taking their drugs because of the costs.

19 Apr 2012

Childhood obesity positively associated with HCC in adulthood

Childhood obesity is a widespread global epidemic and in parallel with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is now the leading cause of liver disease among children. New data presented today at the International Liver Congress- 2012 furthers this concern by showing that childhood obesity is positively linked with developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) - the most common form of liver cancer - in adulthood.

19 Apr 2012