Heart Disease News and Research

Latest Heart Disease News and Research

Smokers more likely to receive jolt from defibrillators

If some patients with heart disease don't take their doctor's advice to quit smoking, they are probably going to get "shocking" reminders.

8 May 2006

New approaches to genetic disease, based on cells' own ability to correct themselves

New approaches to genetic disease, based on cells' own ability to correct themselves, will be outlined today at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

8 May 2006

Urgent effort underway to learn how diabetes increases heart disease risk

A researcher at the University of Rochester Medical Center has won the 2006 Thomas R. Lee Career Development Award from the American Diabetes Association (ADA), which includes an $842,400 grant to study how diabetes dramatically increases risk for cardiovascular disease.

8 May 2006

New technology to help physicians and engineers pool resources to prevent stroke

A professor at the University of Houston and his research students are working with physicians and scientists at the Methodist Neurological Institute on new technology to help identify which brain aneurysms are at highest risk of rupture and could cause a stroke.

8 May 2006

Bill Clinton takes the fizz out of schools

Bill Clinton has managed to persuade the giants of the U.S. beverage industry to agree to take an active part in the fight against childhood obesity.

3 May 2006

Cancer cure worth $50 trillion

A new study, to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Political Economy, calculates the prospective gains that could be obtained from further progress against major diseases.

3 May 2006

Inhibiting cell process may give cancer drug a boost

A molecule that interferes with the internal scaffolding that shapes the cell may kill cancer cells, retard the growth of tumors and give a boost to a common chemotherapy drug, according to findings appearing in the May 3 issue of the European Journal of Cancer.

3 May 2006

Hormone therapy still the most effective for menopause symptoms

A new study has found that estrogen therapy is the best treatment for menopause-related hot flashes.

3 May 2006

$Men with low estrogen levels have an increased risk for future hip fracture$

Men with low estrogen levels have an increased risk for future hip fracture

A new study has found that men with low estrogen levels have an increased risk for future hip fracture, and those with both low estrogen and low testosterone levels have the greatest risk.

3 May 2006

DARPA grant supports research toward realizing tissue regeneration

While U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are surviving injuries that in previous conflicts likely would have been fatal, the number of wounded with major tissue loss has never before been so high.

3 May 2006

Study helps explain why aerobic training helps heart failure patients

Aerobic training is associated with a reversal of abnormal hormonal patterns that underlie many of the debilitating symptoms of heart failure, according to a new study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

3 May 2006

Endocannabinoid system shows promise in combating obesity

As the obesity epidemic grows in the United States, the medical community is faced with the significant challenge of properly treating patients before complications such as heart disease arise.

3 May 2006

African American men have fewer, less severe coronary obstructions than white males

While African American men are more likely to die from cardiovascular disease, they paradoxically have fewer cases of coronary obstruction than clinically similar white men, according to a new national study led by a Medical College of Wisconsin researcher.

3 May 2006

Virtual reality simulation technology improves carotid angiography skills

Cardiologists can learn to perform risky catheter procedures such as carotid angiography on a virtual patient simulator, rather than on real patients, according to a new study in the May 2, 2006, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

3 May 2006

Heart risks from Vioxx happen much earlier than believed

A new study led by Queen's University researcher Linda Livesque shows that heart attacks related to the use of Vioxx - a drug once popular for the treatment of pain and inflammation - can occur within the first two weeks of use.

3 May 2006

Elevated serum alanine aminotransferase activity and calculated risk of coronary heart disease in the U.S.

A new study on the relationship between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and heart disease found that patients with an elevated level of the enzyme associated with NAFLD had an increased risk of coronary heart disease, which appears to be related to insulin resistance, obesity and central fat distribution.

3 May 2006

Periodontitis and plasma C-reactive protein during pregnancy

Researchers found that pregnant women with periodontitis had 65 percent higher C-reactive protein (CRP) levels compared to periodontally healthy women.

3 May 2006

New drug lixivaptan reduces excess fluid build-up in patients with congestive heart failure

Researchers believe they may have identified a new agent to reduce the excess fluid build-up in patients with congestive heart failure, one that avoids the relative sodium-depleting effects of diuretics, now the most commonly used drugs for this purpose.

3 May 2006

Study highlights the benefits of a clinic that specializes in the needs of obese patients with metabolic syndrome

Obesity researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee found that a multidisciplinary clinical approach to caring for obese patients with metabolic syndrome could swiftly and significantly lower their risk for heart disease.

3 May 2006

Simple formula that will enable anesthesiologists to predict blood needs in heart surgery

Duke University Medical Center researchers have developed a simple formula that will enable anesthesiologists to predict, based on individual patient characteristics, how much blood to have on hand in the operating room prior to coronary artery bypass surgery.

3 May 2006