Heart Disease News and Research

Latest Heart Disease News and Research

Discovery of gene that may play a role in centronuclear myopathy

By studying the molecules that regulate the formation of muscle, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered a gene that may play a role in a rare muscular disease in humans.

31 Aug 2005

Extra-virgin olive oil tastes good and is also an anti-inflammatory

After a tasting experience at a molecular gastronomy meeting in Sicily, biologist Gary Beauchamp of Pennsylvania University decided to analyse freshly pressed extra-virgin olive oil and found a chemical that acted like ibuprofen in the oil.

31 Aug 2005

U.S. to toughen mad cow safeguards after case in Texas

The U.S. Agriculture Department (USDA) has now formally closed its investigation of the first native U.S. case of mad cow disease, in June this year.

31 Aug 2005

Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome in children may be helped by cancer drugs

Children who suffer from a rare disease called progeria, which accelerates aging and often kills patients when they are in their teens, may possibly be helped by drugs being developed to treat cancer.

31 Aug 2005

International SHAPE project reveals massive public lack of awareness on heart failure

An international survey of the public's awareness of heart failure has revealed a woeful and worrying level of ignorance, according to the lead author of the research, which is published (Wednesday 31 August) in Europe's leading cardiology journal European Heart Journal.

31 Aug 2005

Data show that HIV-infected older people not taking HAART have double the risk of death

HIV is often regarded as a disease of young people, due to its status as a drug-related or sexually transmitted disease. However, the number of people over age 50 who are infected with HIV is significant--and growing--according to an article in the Sept. 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online.

30 Aug 2005

When it comes to heart bypass surgery, women twice as likely to die

According to a new study when it comes to heart bypass surgery, women are nearly twice as likely as men to die from complications.

30 Aug 2005

Designer molecules that combine metals such as copper with natural organic materials could treat diseases in the body

That's the finding of chemists at Ohio State University, who have successfully tested such molecules against portions of HIV and Hepatitis C virus RNA in the laboratory. They've also created molecules that act like ACE, or angiotensin-converting enzyme, inhibitors - drugs that are used to lower blood pressure.

30 Aug 2005

Step towards understanding cell mutations that cause a variety of human diseases

A step towards understanding cell mutations that cause a variety of human diseases, particularly in children - including that which brings about premature aging and early death - has been taken by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Silberman Institute of Life Sciences and the John Hopkins University School of Medicine.

30 Aug 2005

Viagra fights heart and lung diseases

German researchers have reported on the impact of Viagra on pulmonary hypertension at the Frontiers of Vascular Medicine Conference at Monash University this week.

30 Aug 2005

Severely restricting calories over decades won't dramatically extend life span

Severely restricting calories over decades may add a few years to a human life span, but will not enable humans to live to 125 and beyond, as many have speculated, evolutionary biologists report.

30 Aug 2005

Teenage drug use can lead to adult addiction and heart attack

A new study from the Howard Florey Institute in Melbourne may help explain why people who experimented with amphetamines, such as 'speed', as teenagers are more likely to become addicted and more susceptible to heart attack following re-use of the drug as adults.

30 Aug 2005

Blood flow into the brain may play a larger role in the development of dementia than previously believed

Researchers from Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to examine the brains of elderly patients with and without dementia related to Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease.

30 Aug 2005

Aspirin shown to be beneficial before heart surgery

Surgeons who have been advising their patients to avoid taking aspirin in the days before surgery because they feared it could cause bleeding, will be reassured by the results of a new study.

30 Aug 2005

Statins reduce heart attack deaths by 50%

According to a U.S. study, giving a heart attack patient a statin drug as soon as possible reduces the chance he or she will die by 50 percent.

30 Aug 2005

If you thought getting mugged was more likely than a stroke - wrong again!

A new survey suggests that the risk of having a stroke is greatly underestimated by most people in the UK.

30 Aug 2005

Blocking Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) with anticancer drugs

A class of anticancer drugs currently being evaluated in phase 3 clinical trials may also be an effective treatment for Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS), a fatal genetic disorder that causes premature aging.

29 Aug 2005

Drugs known as farnesyltransferase inhibitors (FTIs) may hold promise for premature aging disorder

In a surprising development, a research team led by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), has found that a class of experimental anti-cancer drugs also shows promise in laboratory studies for treating a fatal genetic disorder that causes premature aging.

29 Aug 2005

Relative of the celebrated COX-2 inhibitor celecoxib is tough tumor fighter

A close structural relative of the celebrated COX-2 inhibitor celecoxib (brand name: Celebrex) is a potent tumor fighter, able to wipe out tumor cells that are resistant to conventional chemotherapies, according to an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Southern California.

29 Aug 2005

Inexpensive method to assess the stability and quality of sleep

Using information hidden in the beat-to-beat changes of the heart's electrical signals, researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have developed an inexpensive method to assess the stability and quality of sleep, which could be used to help understand the mechanisms of sleep control and diagnose sleep disorders, as well as to test the efficacy of sleep aids and other medications.

29 Aug 2005