Heart Disease News and Research

Latest Heart Disease News and Research

Obese post-menopausal women outperform normal weight counterparts in cognitive tasks

Obesity has been associated with cognitive decline, characterized by a deterioration of mental abilities that involve memory, language, and thought-processing speed.

14 Oct 2011

RWJF grant to study relationship between people's neighborhoods, hospital locations and care outcomes

Matthew D. McHugh, PhD, CRNP, MPH, JD, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, has won a competitive grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to study the relationships among where people live, where they receive hospital care, and the outcomes of that care.

14 Oct 2011

Million Hearts initiative strikes at leading killer of Americans

The number of Americans who report they have coronary heart disease – which includes heart attack and angina (chest pain) – continues to decline but rates vary widely from state to state and by race and ethnicity, according to a new report published today in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

14 Oct 2011

APS conference explores gender disparities in cardiovascular disease

Cardiovascular disease and other gender-specific conditions - such as menopause, pregnancy, depression, and obesity - will be explored in depth at a two day conference being sponsored by the American Physiology Society (APS), the nation's leading organization for the advancement of this vital science, with support from the American Heart Association and the Society for Women's Health Research.

14 Oct 2011

Grim economic times could cause men to seek more sexual partners

Grim economic times could cause men to seek more sexual partners, giving them more chances to reproduce, according to research by Omri Gillath, a social psychology professor at the University of Kansas.

14 Oct 2011

Cord blood stem cells can repair cardiac muscle after heart attack

At least 20 million people survive heart attacks and strokes every year, according to World Health Organisation estimates, but many have poor life expectancy and require continual costly clinical care. The use of patient's own stem cells may repair heart attacks, although their benefit may be limited due to scarce availability and ageing. The researchers have found heart muscle-like cells grown using stem cells from human umbilical cord blood could help repair heart muscle cells damaged by a heart attack.

14 Oct 2011

Pulse oximetry can detect critical congenital heart disease in infants

Pulse oximetry, a non-invasive procedure that measures the amount of oxygen in the bloodstream, can be used as a screening tool to detect critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) in infants, and is more readily available than echocardiography, the current gold standard for CCHD diagnosis, according to a new research abstract presented Friday, Oct. 14, at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition (NCE) in Boston.

14 Oct 2011

Potential new protein target for sickle cell disease

National Institutes of Health-funded scientists have corrected sickle cell disease in adult laboratory mice by activating production of a special blood component normally produced before, but not after, birth.

14 Oct 2011

GFAP protein levels can help identify HIE in newborns

Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered that increased blood levels of a protein specific to central nervous system cells that are vital to the brain's structure can help physicians identify newborns with brain injuries due to lack of oxygen.

14 Oct 2011

Top-line results from POZEN's PA32540 Phase 3 trial on aspirin-associated gastric ulcers

POZEN Inc., a pharmaceutical company committed to transforming medicine that transforms lives, announced today top-line results from study 303, a Phase 3 trial designed to track the long-term safety of PA32540 in patients who are at risk for developing aspirin-associated gastric ulcers.

13 Oct 2011

New insights into how adenovirus triggers an immune response

A Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine study could lead to improved gene therapies for conditions such as heart disease and cancer as well as more effective vaccines for tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases.

13 Oct 2011

Hospitalized patients with anemia may not always benefit from transfusion

University of Kentucky researchers, including lead author Samy Selim of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and the Saha Cardiovascular Research Center, have recently published a paper suggesting that transfusion may not always be the best treatment for hospitalized patients with anemia.

13 Oct 2011

Latest breakthroughs in lasers and optics to be discussed at 95th OSA meeting

Scientists and engineers from around the world will gather in the heart of Silicon Valley next week to discuss some of the latest breakthroughs in lasers and optics and their applications to cutting-edge science, the development of new materials, and medicine.

13 Oct 2011

University of Cape Town, UT Southwestern sign affiliation agreement

UT Southwestern Medical Center and the faculty of health sciences of the University of Cape Town in South Africa, signed a five-year affiliation agreement today to collaborate on faculty and student exchanges, joint research and training activities and other educational opportunities.

13 Oct 2011

Simmons Center to evaluate CGEN-25009 for treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Compugen Ltd. and the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation announced today that the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation will provide a grant to scientists at the University of Pittsburgh Dorothy P. and Richard P.

13 Oct 2011

Breast-reconstruction procedure can preserve mammary artery for future cardiac surgery

Doctors at Johns Hopkins have shown that during an increasingly popular type of breast-reconstruction surgery, they can safely preserve the internal mammary artery, in case it is needed for future cardiac surgery.

13 Oct 2011

Raw fruits and veggies may offset genetic risk for heart disease: Study

In a new study a team of researchers looked at the genotypes of 27,243 people from two separate studies to see if they had a certain gene variant. Earlier studies including a 2010 meta-analysis in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. found that the 9p21 gene is associated with a higher risk of heart attack and cardiovascular disease.

13 Oct 2011

FDA grant to foster development of novel pediatric medical devices

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has awarded the Georgia Institute of Technology, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University and Saint Joseph's Translational Research Institute (SJTRI) a two-year, $1.8 million grant to foster the development of medical devices focused on the special needs of children.

13 Oct 2011

GeneDx launches new genetic test to accurately diagnose rare diseases

At the joint conference of the American Society of Human Genetics/International Congress on Human Genetics in Montreal on October 12, GeneDx, one of the foremost genetics laboratories in the world and a subsidiary of Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc., is announcing a first-of-its-kind test that will enable physicians and patients to more accurately identify the genetic cause of rare diseases.

13 Oct 2011

CSIR and Mayo Clinic sign research collaboration agreement

Mayo Clinic and the top science and technology organization in India have signed an agreement to collaborate on research. Leaders from Mayo and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India today signed a memorandum of understanding to work together on such topics as drug, device and biomarker studies relating to heart disease, chemical biology and applied genomics, and innovations in metabolomics.

13 Oct 2011