Heart Disease News and Research

Latest Heart Disease News and Research

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease linked to coronary artery disease

Because of the prevalence of obesity in our country, many Americans are expected to develop a serious condition called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which can lead to cirrhosis, fibrosis, and in some cases liver failure. It is also one of the best predictors for coronary artery disease.

18 Apr 2011

ARCA biopharma to sell $3 million of common stock and warrants in registered direct offering

ARCA biopharma, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing genetically-targeted therapies for atrial fibrillation, heart failure and other cardiovascular diseases, today announced that it has agreed to sell approximately $3 million of its common stock and warrants to institutional investors in a registered direct offering.

18 Apr 2011

Scientists identify networks of genes critical in embryonic-heart development

Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have identified networks of genes that play an important role in embryonic-heart development, advancing knowledge of how healthy hearts develop-and offering clues about how to combat a common birth defect known as congenital heart disease.

18 Apr 2011

Baxter enters definitive agreement to acquire Prism

Baxter International Inc. announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Prism Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company based in King of Prussia, PA. Prism Pharmaceuticals has developed and received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for multiple presentations of NEXTERONE® (amiodarone HCl), an antiarrhythmic agent.

From Baxter International Inc. 18 Apr 2011

St. Jude Medical's Accent MRI pacemaker and Tendril MRI lead system receives European CE Mark approval

St. Jude Medical, Inc., a global medical device company, today announced that it has received European CE Mark approval for its Accent MRI™ pacemaker and Tendril MRI™ lead. The system, designed and tested for safe use in a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) environment and approved as MR-Conditional, allows patients to undergo full-body, high-resolution MRI scans.

18 Apr 2011

Top-line results from Amarin's AMR101 Phase 3 trial in patients with high triglycerides

Amarin Corporation plc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company with a focus on cardiovascular disease, today reported positive, statistically significant top-line results from its ANCHOR trial for the Company's lead product candidate, AMR101.

18 Apr 2011

Parents may chose predictive genetic tests for their children

Parents offered genetic testing to predict their risks of common, adult-onset health conditions say they would also test their children. That is the finding of a new study published in the May issue of Pediatrics.

18 Apr 2011

Blue Cross launches 'The Human Do.ing' project to improve communities' health

He danced. He grooved. He walked. He sweated. And in the end, he did something he wasn't sure was possible. He got healthy. On Saturday, Twin Cities man Scott Jorgenson, 45, ended his 30 days as "The Human Do.ing," a project developed by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota as part of the company's do. Campaign to "groove your body every day" to achieve better health.

18 Apr 2011

Non-Hispanic black infants born with heart defects more likely to die within five years

Non-Hispanic black infants born with heart defects are more likely to die within the first five years of life than their non-Hispanic white and Hispanic peers. For certain types of congenital heart abnormalities, Hispanic children as well as non-Hispanic black children fare worse than non-Hispanic white children.

18 Apr 2011

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