Heart Disease News and Research

Latest Heart Disease News and Research

Gene expression profiling shows how transplanted heart is performing

New research suggests a genomic test may provide detailed information on how well a transplanted heart is performing.

30 Mar 2007

New cardiovascular treatment approaches

In an era of increasing death and illness from heart and blood vessel disease - which also can impair kidney function - Mayo Clinic researchers have designed two promising new cardiovascular treatment approaches.

30 Mar 2007

Bioengineering heart parts

Some day, heart attack survivors might have a patch of laboratory-grown muscle placed in their heart, to replace areas that died during their attack.

30 Mar 2007

Education and support programs improve long-term outcomes for high-risk cardiac patients

More than 30 percent of patients who suffer heart failure die within one year, but education and support programs have been shown to improve that statistic.

30 Mar 2007

Blood pressure control with Clevidipine

Researchers report that an investigational anti-hypertensive therapy may perform better in controlling blood pressure than standard treatments for patients undergoing heart surgery, during a presentation at the American College of Cardiology's 56th Annual Scientific Session.

30 Mar 2007

Treating congenital heart defects in babies still in the womb

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and Brigham and Women's Hospital reviewed the cases of 80 fetuses who had prenatal cardiac interventions during a six-year period (most often to avert hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

30 Mar 2007

London asthma sufferers get space-based help

The city of London has launched an innovative service, funded by ESA, which delivers air pollution alerts and health advice via SMS text messages to those who suffer from asthma and other conditions vulnerable to poor air quality.

29 Mar 2007

Withdrawal of Pergolide products

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced that manufacturers of pergolide drug products, which are used to treat Parkinson's disease, will voluntarily remove these drugs from the market because of the risk of serious damage to patients' heart valves.

29 Mar 2007

Research agreement to advance new imaging technology

The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) and T.I.E.S., LLC, a Rochester-based start-up company, have entered into a research partnership to evaluate a new technology that could ultimately represent a major advance in medical imaging.

29 Mar 2007

Pomegranate juice may help fight prostate cancer

Few American men have heard of the pomegranate, and fewer still have eaten this curious-looking fruit loaded with red seeds. But new scientific findings suggest that pomegranates may one day find a place in healthful diets, reports the April 2007 issue of Harvard Men's Health Watch.

28 Mar 2007

Lifeblood Medical receives U.S. patent notice

Lifeblood Medical has announced that it has received a Notice of Allowance from the U.S. Patent Office for its patent application titled, "Composition for Maintaining Organ and Cell Viability."

28 Mar 2007

Study provides strongest link to date between trans fat and heart disease

High consumption of trans fat, found mainly in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and widely used by the food industry, has been linked to an increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD).

28 Mar 2007

Plavix appears to be safe during and after heart bypass

Heart surgeons don't have to choose between taking a coronary-bypass patient off the popular anti-clotting drug clopidogrel (Plavix) after off-pump heart bypass surgery or having the patient bleed excessively in the days following surgery, according to a new study by researchers at Jefferson Medical College.

28 Mar 2007

Medications plus lifestyle changes work as well as angioplasty to reduce deaths in stable heart-disease patients

Coronary revascularization with stenting or balloon angioplasty combined with optimal medical therapy is no more effective in preventing a heart attack, other major cardiovascular events or death in patients with stable heart disease, than optimal medical therapy alone, results of a new study conducted in 50 hospitals in the U.S. and Canada has shown.

27 Mar 2007

Circadian genes may be involved in bipolar disorder

Disrupt the gene that regulates the biological clocks in mice and they become manic, exhibiting behaviors similar to humans with bipolar disorder, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.

25 Mar 2007

Long periods of bed rest harmful to health of pregnant women

Studies by NASA scientists, who used bed rest to simulate weightlessness in space, found that complete immobility during a long period of time can cause degeneration of person's musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems.

22 Mar 2007

CardioMEMS implants first wireless pressure sensor to monitor hypertension

CardioMEMS has announced that its wireless pressure sensor was successfully surgically implanted into the wrist of three severely hypertensive patients at Hospital DIPRECA in Santiago, Chile by cardio-thoracic surgeons, Miguel Luis Berr, MD and Michael Tuchek, DO.

22 Mar 2007

Emergency responses greatly increase risk to firefighters for heart disease

Firefighters engage in a dangerous occupation, risking life-threatening burns and smoke inhalation, among other hazards. So it may surprise some that the leading cause of death on duty among U.S. firefighters is coronary heart disease (CHD).

22 Mar 2007

Treating sleep apnea with continuous positive airway pressure reduces incidence of stroke

Patients with moderate to severe sleep apnea who have significantly higher serum levels of inflammatory markers that serve as precursors to coronary artery disease, as well as lesions associated with silent brain infarction, have an elevated risk of stroke, according to a group of Japanese medical researchers.

19 Mar 2007

FDA approves Soliris (eculizumab), first treatment for paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Soliris (eculizumab), the first product for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), a rare type of blood disorder that can lead to disability and premature death.

19 Mar 2007