Heart Disease News and Research

Latest Heart Disease News and Research

WPI professor receives AHA fellowship for research into cardiovascular disease

Dalin Tang, professor of mathematical sciences and biomedical engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), has been elected a fellow of the American Heart Association (AHA). Tang was elected to fellowship by the AHA's Council on Basic Cardiovascular Sciences in recognition of his "major and productive contributions in cardiovascular basic science."

27 Sep 2011

HCRI completes enrollment in dual antiplatelet therapy clinical trial

The Harvard Clinical Research Institute (HCRI) announced today that the enrollment phase of the DAPT Study has been successfully completed. The DAPT Study is a four-year clinical trial investigating the duration of dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT, the combination of aspirin and a thienopyridine/antiplatelet medication to reduce the risk of blood clots) following drug-eluting stent implantations.

27 Sep 2011

Insurers, patients wrestle with payment, care issues and strategies

News outlets report on a variety of issues reflecting the insurance hassles patients sometimes face and the efforts by insurance companies to find profits in better-coordinated care.

27 Sep 2011

Patients with chronic conditions likely to change their preferences for CPR

Patients with chronic conditions are likely to change their preferences for receiving emergency procedures in the event of cardiac arrest, according to new findings.

27 Sep 2011

$Women ages 65-69 with hip fracture more likely to die within a year$

Women ages 65-69 with hip fracture more likely to die within a year

Women ages 65-69 who break a hip are five times more likely to die within a year than women of the same age who don't break a hip, according to a Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research study funded by the National Institutes of Health and published online today in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

27 Sep 2011

Stony Brook University opens new center to treat valvular heart disease

Stony Brook University Medical Center has opened a new Valve Center that offers comprehensive treatment of valvular heart disease.

27 Sep 2011

UNC CDTR aims to reduce diabetes-related health disparities

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has received a $3 million, 5-year grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to establish the UNC Center for Diabetes Translation Research to Reduce Health Disparities.

27 Sep 2011

Eating blueberries may inhibit breast cancer tumor growth

Eating blueberries may inhibit breast cancer tumor growth, according to a recent study by researchers at the City of Hope in Los Angeles that is published in the October 2011 issue of The Journal Of Nutrition and featured in the September issue of Food Nutrition & Science.

27 Sep 2011

Endologix develops Ventana stent graft system to treat aortic aneurysms

The Methodist Hospital has been chosen as a study site for a new type of stent graft device that is designed for the repair of certain types of aortic aneurysms near or involving the blood vessels that lead to the kidneys. The Ventana Fenestrated Stent Graft System is made by Endologix Inc., which is sponsoring both the feasibility and pivotal studies of the device.

27 Sep 2011

Research roundup: Widows and medical spending; disparities in heart care, hospital deaths

The authors write: "We find that out-of-pocket medical spending is approximately 29 percent higher when an individual becomes widowed, a large portion of which is spending on nursing homes. Our results suggest a substantial role of living arrangements in out-of-pocket medical spending; however, our estimates combined with differences in rates of widowhood across gender suggest that marital status can explain only one third of the gender difference in total out-of-pocket medical spending, leaving a large portion unexplained.

27 Sep 2011

Study: Underweight COPD patients more likely to face death

Patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are at a higher risk of death if they are underweight.

27 Sep 2011

No link between chemotherapy during pregnancy and children's cognitive development

Children born after their mothers were treated with chemotherapy during pregnancy appear to be unaffected by the experience in terms of the development of their mental processes and the normal functioning of their hearts, according to new research presented at the 2011 European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress.

27 Sep 2011

Alnylam commences ALN-PCS Phase I trial in severe hypercholesterolemia

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leading RNAi therapeutics company, announced today that it has initiated dosing in its Phase I clinical trial with ALN-PCS, an RNAi therapeutic targeting proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9, or PCSK9, for the treatment of severe hypercholesterolemia.

27 Sep 2011

Men over 75 with prostate cancer are being undertreated: Study

It's an ongoing debate: Should men over a certain age be treated for prostate cancer? Should these patients be submitted to treatments that may result in significant side effects if they may not live very much longer?

27 Sep 2011

Roundup: Patient dies after medical error during Calif. nurses strike; grocery workers ratify contract that had partially hinged on health care

Veteran nurses locked out of Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland said Sunday that the death of a patient due to a medical error by a replacement worker wouldn't have happened if they had been allowed to do their jobs. The hospital's management countered that it was a freak accident that could have happened at any time -- with or without the replacement nurses. At the center of the dispute is a cancer patient, a woman who has not been identified but whose tragic death on Saturday has inflamed an already tense labor dispute.

27 Sep 2011

People with COPD, reduced lung function more likely to develop cardiovascular disease

A new study has shown that people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or people with reduced lung function are at a serious risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

26 Sep 2011

New insights into actions of NSAIDs

Ibuprofen, naproxen, and related non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) - the subjects of years of study - still have some secrets to reveal about how they work.

26 Sep 2011

Genentech announces results of trastuzumab emtansine Phase II study on HER2-positive mBC

Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, today announced the results of the Phase II study TDM4450g in people with previously untreated HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

26 Sep 2011

Gold nanowires in engineered cardiac patches could help heart attack patients

A team of physicians, engineers and materials scientists at Children's Hospital Boston and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have used nanotechnology and tiny gold wires to engineer cardiac patches, with cells all beating in time, that could someday help heart attack patients.

26 Sep 2011

Vaxent, PREVENT sign license agreement to develop and commercialize Strep-A vaccine

An international collaboration between Vaxent, a Memphis-based early stage vaccine development company in the Memphis Bioworks Foundation Incubator, and The Pan-Provincial Vaccine Enterprise Inc. (PREVENT), a Centre of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR) in Saskatchewan, has put a vaccine for group A streptococcus (Strep-A) back on the path for potential commercialization.

26 Sep 2011