Heart Disease News and Research

Latest Heart Disease News and Research

New anti-pathogenic drugs render MRSA harmless without killing bacteria

Menachem Shoham, PhD, associate professor and researcher in the department of biochemistry at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, has identified new anti-pathogenic drugs that, without killing the bacteria, render Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) harmless by preventing the production of toxins that cause disease.

17 Sep 2010

FDA approves expanded indication for Boston Scientific's CRT-Ds

Boston Scientific Corporation today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved an expanded indication for its cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators (CRT-Ds), including the COGNIS® CRT-D. The exclusive expanded indication is effective immediately and makes Boston Scientific CRT-Ds the only devices approved by the FDA for patients in all New York Heart Association (NYHA) classes of heart failure.

17 Sep 2010

Metabolism imbalance increases asthma risk in children: Research

Even children of a healthy weight who have an imbalanced metabolism due to poor diet or exercise may be at increased risk of asthma, according to new research, which challenges the widespread assumption that obesity itself is a risk factor for asthma.

17 Sep 2010

FDA approves CRT-D device to treat heart failure patients

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved a new indication for three cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators (CRT-D) used to treat certain heart failure patients.

17 Sep 2010

Abbott to present two drug eluting stents data at TCT symposium

Abbott today announced the company's schedule of key data presentations at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation's 22nd annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium in Washington, D.C., to be held Sept. 21 – 25.

17 Sep 2010

Roche Diagnostics introduces STAT immunoassays for cardiac biomarker testing

Roche Diagnostics announced today that it has introduced a complete battery of STAT immunoassays for cardiac biomarker testing on the cobas 6000 analyzer series, an integrated system designed for diagnostic labs with medium testing volumes.

From Roche Sequencing and Life Science 17 Sep 2010

Artificial pancreas for diabetics

In another few years diabetics may be treated using an artificial pancreas developed by Professor Joan Taylor professor of Pharmaceutics at De Montfort University (DMU), Leicester. This could mean freedom from daily insulin injections she said.

16 Sep 2010

HFSA to discuss 'Designing the Medical Home for Heart Failure Patients' at Scientific Meeting

The 14th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) will feature a discussion titled "Designing the Medical Home for Heart Failure Patients." Contributors Dr. Mary Norine Walsh and Dr. Larry A. Allen will describe treatment and care strategies in the medical home model and how they impact both patients and caregivers.

16 Sep 2010

NHLBI selects NuGEN to provide automated reagent solutions for expression profiling

NuGEN Technologies, the provider of innovative RNA and DNA amplification and sample preparation technologies for genomic analysis, today announced it has been selected by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to provide automated reagent solutions for expression profiling of approximately 6,000 blood samples from the Framingham Heart Study.

16 Sep 2010

Data finds U.S. adults perform sedentary, light activities

On any given day, most U.S. adults report performing predominantly sedentary and light activities, according to a new study published in the October issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Overall only 5.07% report any vigorous intensity activity. The most frequently reported moderate activity was food and drink preparation.

16 Sep 2010

Recommendations for developing novel therapies for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

An abrupt, fatal heart attack in a young athlete on the playing field is a tragedy destined to repeat itself over and over until more is understood about hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), a genetic disorder that is the most common cause of sudden death in young people but which affects people of all ages.

16 Sep 2010

Abbott issues statement in response to FDA's mixed vote for weight loss medication sibutramine

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today held an Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee to review the results of SCOUT and the weight loss medication sibutramine (sold as Meridia® in the United States).

16 Sep 2010

PolyMedix presents defensin mimetic antibiotics data at ICAAC Conference

PolyMedix, Inc., an emerging biotechnology company focused on developing new therapeutic drugs to treat acute cardiovascular disorders and infectious diseases, today presented five posters at the 50th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC).

16 Sep 2010

Optical coherence tomography to penetrate intravascular ultrasound market: MRG

According to Millennium Research Group (MRG), the optical coherence tomography market will grow at an annual rate of almost 60% through 2015, spurred by physician adoption of this new technology that was launched in the US in May 2010.

16 Sep 2010

New approach to evaluate risk of cardiovascular disease

A new approach to evaluating a person's risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, high blood pressure, or heart failure is reported this month in the International Journal of Data Mining, Modelling and Management. The technique uses fuzzy logic to teach a neural network computer program to analyze patient data and spot correlations that can be translated into a risk factor for an individual.

16 Sep 2010

Lowfat or fat free milk daily can help maintain healthy weight

Now there's a new reason to grab a glass of milk when you're on diet, suggests a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. In a 2-year weight loss study, milk drinkers had an advantage over those who skipped the milk. Israeli researchers found that adults who drank the most milk (nearly 2 glasses per day) and had the highest vitamin D levels at 6 months, lost more weight after 2 years than those who had little or no milk or milk products nearly 12 pounds weight loss, on average.

16 Sep 2010

Angioslide commercializes Proteus device for ECA in the U.S.

Angioslide, Inc. of Minneapolis, MN and Angioslide, Ltd. Herzliya, Israel, announced today that the company has commercialized the Proteus device for Embolic Capture Angioplasty in the United States. The device combines an angioplasty balloon and embolic capture feature into one device, thus providing physicians with a simple and cost-effective method of capturing of embolic particles during angioplasty procedures.

16 Sep 2010

UCLA selected to help establish guidelines for health, safety of firefighters in the field

The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have been selected by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate to help establish guidelines for the health and safety of firefighters in the field.

16 Sep 2010

Relypsa announces positive results from Phase 2 clinical trial of RLY5016

Relypsa, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing non-absorbed polymeric drugs, today announced positive results from the company's PEARL-HF study, a Phase 2 clinical trial of the company's lead compound, RLY5016. These data were presented by Dr. Bertram Pitt, Professor of Medicine Emeritus, Division of Medicine at the University of Michigan School of Medicine, during the Late-Breaking Clinical Trials Session in an oral presentation titled "The PEARL-HF (Multicenter, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Parallel Group, Multiple-Dose To Evaluate the Effects of RLY5016 in Heart Failure Patients) Trial" at the 14th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Heart Failure Society of America held in San Diego, CA September 13-15, 2010.

16 Sep 2010

HHS awards grant to develop patient-centered outcomes research

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant Secretary for Health, Howard K. Koh, MD, MPH, today announced the award of more than $14 million to develop, implement, and test strategies to increase the adoption and dissemination of interventions based on patient-centered outcomes research among racial and ethnic minority populations.

16 Sep 2010