Heart Disease News and Research

Latest Heart Disease News and Research

New guidelines for cardiac specialists

A series of new guidelines for cardiac specialists has been developed to determine when heart failure patients should receive a mechanical heart-pumping device.

18 Apr 2011

Eye physicians need to include low-cost molecular medicine in their tool box

Dr. Richer, speaking at his 4th annual Nutrition & The Eye conference, April 16-17, hosted by the College of Optometry at the University of Missouri in St. Louis, says molecular medicine is beginning to provide hope for patients with declining sight when all other therapies have been exhausted.

18 Apr 2011

Researchers discover strategy that promotes new blood vessel formation

Researchers at The University of Western Ontario have discovered a strategy for stimulating the formation of highly functional new blood vessels in tissues that are starved of oxygen. Dr. Geoffrey Pickering and Matthew Frontini at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry developed a strategy in which a biological factor, called fibroblast growth factor 9, is delivered at the same time that the body is making its own effort at forming new blood vessels in vulnerable or damaged tissue.

18 Apr 2011

Consumers can trust the quality and value of heart-healthy imported olive oils: Study

Consumers can continue to trust the quality of the imported olive oils they buy in supermarkets throughout the United States, contrary to what the authors of a report funded by a small contingent of domestic olive oil producers would like them to believe.

16 Apr 2011

Team of researchers study development of mesoderm

During the development of an embryo, a large number of different, specialised cell-types arise from the fertilised egg. The genetic information is identical in all cells of an organism. Different properties of cells arise because the activity of genes is controlled and regulated by so called transcription factors. By switching genes on or off, the body makes muscle cells, bone cells, liver cells and many more.

16 Apr 2011

Exercise improves outcomes in patients with heart attack

A new study by researchers at the University of Alberta shows that for best results in stable patients after a heart attack, early exercise as well as prolonged exercise is the key to the best outcomes.

16 Apr 2011

Crisis communication lessons from Japan's tsunami disaster

Adam Acar and Yuya Muraki of the Kobe City University of Foreign Studies surveyed and questioned Twitter users and tracked updates from people in the disaster-struck area on the social media site two weeks after the Tohoku earthquake and devastating tsunami of March 11. They hoped to determine what benefits such a system can bring to people involved in a disaster and to those hoping to hear news.

16 Apr 2011

Seniors living in supportive neighborhoods have better stroke survival rates

The odds of surviving stroke appear to be much better for seniors living in neighborhoods where they interact more often with their neighbors and count on them for help, according to research published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association.

16 Apr 2011

GRAVITAS study shows no benefit of double-dose compared with standard-dose clopidogrel

An international consortium of scientists, including major contributions from the Montreal Heart Institute, demonstrates that the "one-size fits all" strategy of uniformly doubling the dose of an antiplatelet drug, clopidogrel, for patients with high on-treatment platelet reactivity does not reduce the incidence on death, heart attacks and stent thrombosis after percutaneous coronary intervention.

16 Apr 2011

Abbott submits ARCHITECT 25-OH Vitamin D assay application to FDA for clearance

According to a recent report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a third of Americans have vitamin D levels that are either inadequate or deficient. While many people know that vitamin D is necessary to help the body absorb calcium, which helps create strong bones and muscles, many don't know that insufficient levels of this important vitamin may lead to other health problems.

16 Apr 2011

New results from largest multicenter clinical trial for heart transplant patients be released at ISHLT 2011

New results from the largest multicenter clinical trial for heart transplant patients will be released this week at the International Society for Heart & Lung Transplantation 31st Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions in San Diego. Results show clinical benefit for the use of Everolimus in heart transplant patients.

16 Apr 2011

Chronic exposure to polluted air can lead to inflammation

Chronic inhalation of polluted air appears to activate a protein that triggers the release of white blood cells, setting off events that lead to widespread inflammation, according to new research in an animal model.

16 Apr 2011

Boehringer Ingelheim's dabigatran etexilate receives positive opinion from EMA committee

Boehringer Ingelheim's novel oral anticoagulant dabigatran etexilate, received a positive opinion from the European Medicines Agency's medicinal committee today.

16 Apr 2011

U.S. District Court grants preliminary injunction to POZEN's Treximet patent lawsuit

POZEN Inc., a pharmaceutical company committed to transforming medicine that transforms lives, announced today that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas has granted a preliminary injunction ordering Par Pharmaceutical Inc. not to make, use, sell, offer to sell, or import into the United States a generic version of sumatriptan/naproxen sodium that competes with Treximet sold by GlaxoSmithKline in the United States under an exclusive license from the Company.

15 Apr 2011

Patients with heart failure can benefit from left ventricular assist device

Non-cardiac surgery can be performed safely in patients with a heart device typically implanted into patients waiting for a transplant, according to a study at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

15 Apr 2011

New approach links cancer cell metabolism with poor clinical outcome

Identifying gene mutations in cancer patients to predict clinical outcome has been the cornerstone of cancer research for nearly three decades, but now researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson have invented a new approach that instead links cancer cell metabolism with poor clinical outcome. This approach can now be applied to virtually any type of human cancer cell.

15 Apr 2011

Saint Louis professor develops new high-flow brain bypass procedure

On the cover of a recent edition of the journal Neurosurgery, the highest circulation medical journal in the field, readers saw an artist's intricate depiction of the high-flow brain bypass technique developed by Saint Louis University professor of neurosurgery, Saleem Abdulrauf, M.D.

15 Apr 2011

Patients with RLS more likely to develop cardiovascular conditions

Results from a two-year retrospective cohort study presented at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, Hawaii, U.S., showed that patients were significantly more likely to develop cardiovascular conditions, including hypertension, cardiac dysrhythmias and chronic ischemic heart diseases after an initial diagnosis of RLS, as compared to controls without RLS.

15 Apr 2011

Adhering to cancer prevention guidelines reduces risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease

A study of more than 100,000 men and women over 14 years finds nonsmokers who followed recommendations for cancer prevention had a lower risk of death from cancer, cardiovascular disease, and all-causes. The study appears early online in Cancer Biomarkers, Epidemiology, and Prevention, and was led by American Cancer Society epidemiologists.

15 Apr 2011

Treatment of vascular risk factors may lower risk of Alzheimer's disease

Treating high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and other vascular risk factors may help lower the risk of Alzheimer's disease in people who already show signs of declining thinking skills or memory problems. The research is published in the April 13, 2011, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

15 Apr 2011