Heart Disease News and Research

Latest Heart Disease News and Research

High blood pressure due to stress maybe due to the immune system

If stress is giving you high blood pressure, blame the immune system. T cells, helpful for fighting infections, are also necessary for mice to show an increase in blood pressure after a period of psychological stress, scientists have found.

5 Mar 2012

Medtronic launches MRI passive leads approved for full body MRI scans

Medtronic, Inc. today announced the receipt of CE Mark (Conformité Européenne) and launch of the CapSure Sense MRI SureScan® pacing leads, which are approved for use during Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Medtronic introduced the first MR-Conditional pacemaker system in the world in 2008 and in the U.S. in 2011.

From Medtronic 5 Mar 2012

Anthera continues Phase 2b PEARL-SC clinical study in SLE patients

Anthera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing drugs to treat serious diseases including cardiovascular and autoimmune disorders, today announced the continuation of the Phase 2b PEARL-SC clinical study following an interim analysis of all safety and efficacy data.

5 Mar 2012

Concert commences dosing in CTP-499 Phase 2 clinical trial for diabetic nephropathy

Concert Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced the initiation of dosing in a Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating CTP-499, an investigational drug for the treatment of diabetic nephropathy, the leading cause of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the US.

5 Mar 2012

Varian to acquire InfiMed

Varian Medical Systems, Inc., today announced it has reached an agreement to acquire InfiMed, Inc., a privately-owned, leading supplier of workstations including hardware and software for processing diagnostic X-ray images. The acquisition, which is expected to close in early April subject to the satisfaction of certain closing conditions, will operate within Varian's X-Ray Products segment.

5 Mar 2012

FDA clears Covidien Solitaire FR revascularization device

Covidien, a leading global provider of healthcare products, today announced that the Solitaire FR revascularization device has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The Solitaire FR device is intended to restore blood flow to the brain in patients suffering acute ischemic stroke by mechanically removing blood clots from blocked vessels.

5 Mar 2012

RS donates new medical kit bags to save lives in Northamptonshire

RS Components (RS), the world's leading high service distributor of electronics and maintenance products and the trading brand of Electrocomponents plc, is helping to save lives in Northamptonshire after funding a life saving medical kit bag.

5 Mar 2012

diaDexus introduces new PLAC Activity test in Europe

diaDexus, Inc., a company focused on the development and commercialization of proprietary cardiovascular diagnostic products, today announced the commercial launch of its CE-marked PLAC Test for Lp-PLA(2) Activity in Europe.

5 Mar 2012

Health Impact Project announces awardees of 15 new grants

The Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts, announced the awardees of 15 new grants today. Selected following a nationwide call for proposals, the grantees will conduct health impact assessments (HIAs), a type of study that looks at potential health impacts of policies and projects in other sectors.

5 Mar 2012

CSOS to comply with international emergency medical service protocols

CSOS, China's first emergency assistance specialist with a global servicing capability and hospital network, announced today that it has been in full compliance with international emergency medical service (EMS) protocols as an initiative to promote best emergency care practices and medical excellence for government agencies, insurance companies, institutional clients and to the general public in China.

5 Mar 2012

Novel partnership could transform breast cancer diagnosis

An innovative University of Sydney research partnership with private enterprise could see a radical change in how breast cancer is diagnosed, with the possibility to improve detection rates.

4 Mar 2012

Dutch mobile euthanasia units stir controversy

Controversy has been stirred by a system of mobile euthanasia units that will travel around the country to respond to the wishes of sick people who wish to end their lives in the Netherlands.

4 Mar 2012

Vitamin E may lead to thinning and weakening of bones: Study

From studies in laboratory animals it was found that the most common form of vitamin E stimulates the generation of bone-degrading cells. Scientists who carried out the research in Japan are now calling for their results to be followed up in humans.

4 Mar 2012

New APS policy requires reporting of sex and gender in experimental studies

The American Physiology Society (APS) has announced a new policy requiring the reporting of the sex of experimental animals and the sex or gender of humans used in studies submitted for publication in any of the organization's 13 peer-reviewed journals.

3 Mar 2012

Funding gaps could hinder future of health care in Africa, report says

The "improvement and extension of health care in Africa is ... being constrained by gaps in financing," according to a new report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) based on research commissioned by Janssen Pharmaceutica, a Belgian subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, the Financial Times' "beyondbrics" blog reports.

3 Mar 2012

Inconsistent results from ACS and depression studies

Although it is still suggested that acute coronary syndrome patients with first and new-onset depression are at particularly increased risk of worse prognosis, the inconsistent results from the studies included in this systematic review show that there is no consistent evidence to support such statements.

3 Mar 2012

Consensus across studies promises to enhance NIH-supported asthma clinical research

A consortium of federal agencies and nongovernmental organizations has published a report proposing a set of common measures and data-collection methods for use in asthma clinical research.

3 Mar 2012

New outcome measures may reduce disparities in children with asthma

Newly proposed asthma outcome measures will help standardize and improve results from the hundreds of millions of dollars the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spends annually to study asthma, according to the Merck Childhood Asthma Network, Inc. (MCAN), the nation's only organization focused solely on childhood asthma.

3 Mar 2012

New Brown center for evidence-based medicine and science

The difference between abundant information and useful knowledge is a problem in many fields including health care, where life and death can depend on the decision to prescribe a drug or perform a surgery. A new center at Brown University, led by a team of five experts in evidence-based medicine, will advance the study of turning heaps of data in research papers into a powerful understanding that doctors and scientists can apply.

3 Mar 2012

Epicatechin-enriched cocoa shows promise against heart failure, Type 2 diabetes

A small clinical trial led by researchers at UC San Diego School of Medicine and VA San Diego Healthcare System (VASDHS) found that patients with advanced heart failure and type 2 diabetes showed improved mitochondrial structure after three months of treatment with epicatechin-enriched cocoa. Epicatechin is a flavonoid found in dark chocolate.

3 Mar 2012