The survival rate for individuals who experience a sudden cardiac arrest outside of a hospital is a mere five percent. Time is crucial. Chances of survival drop by 10 percent for every minute that passes without someone performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or using an automated external defibrillator (AED).
The incidence of chronic pain following cardiac surgery can be reduced in patients when the drug pregabalin is used before surgery and for 14 days post-surgery, according to a study presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY™ 2013 annual meeting. The study also found that patients at risk of developing long-term post-operative persistent pain can be predicted by conducting pain sensitivity tests at the time of surgery.
Long-term memory loss, difficulty understanding verbal or written communication or impaired ability to pay attention may still occur five years after heart surgery if a patient has a certain gene variation, according to a study presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY™ 2013 annual meeting. This gene was found to be related to a decline in cognitive capabilities compared to those who do not have the variation.
Mitochondria are the power plants of cells, manufacturing fuel so a cell can perform its many tasks. These cellular power plants also are well known for their role in cell suicide. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Padua-Dulbecco Telethon Institute in Italy have shown that mitochondria remarkably also orchestrate events that determine a cell’s future, at least in the embryonic mouse heart. The new study identifies new potential genetic culprits in the origins of some congenital heart defects.
A study led by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has found that the association between body fat and mortality due to cardiovascular disease differs between south and east Asians, a finding that has important implications for global health recommendations. Cardiovascular disease, a condition in which arteries thicken and restrict blood flow, kills more than 17 million people annually, making it the leading cause of death worldwide.
Early treatment of heart attack patients with an inexpensive beta-blocker drug called metoprolol, while in transit to the hospital, can significantly reduce damage to the heart during a myocardial infarction, according to clinical trial study results published Oct. 1 in the journal Circulation.
Just 21 days of following a low-sodium DASH diet lowered blood pressure and improved heart function for older adults living with a common type of heart failure.
Men who have low testosterone levels may have a slightly elevated risk of developing or dying from heart disease, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
University at Buffalo translational researchers are developing a richer understanding of atherosclerosis in humans, revealing a key role for stem cells that promote inflammation.
Post-menopausal women whose doctors prescribe hormone replacement therapy for severe hot flashes and other menopause symptoms may want to consider taking low doses of Food and Drug Administration-approved bioidentical forms of estrogen or getting their hormones via a transdermal patch. A new observational study shows bioidentical hormones in transdermal patches may be associated with a lower risk of heart attack and FDA-approved products -- not compounded hormones -- may be associated with a slightly lower risk of stroke compared to synthetic hormones in pill form.
Case Western Reserve University is part of a landmark study that has discovered four novel gene variations associated with blood pressure.
Heart attack deaths have remained the same, even as hospital teams have gotten faster at treating heart attack patients with emergency angioplasty, according to a study in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine.
A global study has found that many patients don’t know they have hypertension and, even if they do, too few are receiving adequate drug therapy for their hypertension.
A new world-wide pooled analysis, presented by researchers from The Mount Sinai Medical Center at the ESC Congress 2013 in Amsterdam, organized by the European Society of Cardiology, provides strong evidence that stents work well in women. Their examination of 26 randomized stent studies that enrolled 11,557 women concluded that women benefit just as much from stents as men do.
Over 200 patients who completed the Singapore Heart Foundation’s Heart Wellness Programme demonstrated improvements in cardiac risk factors.
The international research team found risk factors for cardiovascular disease was lowest in low income countries, intermediate in middle income countries and highest in high income countries. However, the incidence of serious cardiovascular disease such as heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and deaths followed the opposite pattern: highest in the low income countries, intermediate in middle income countries and lowest in high income countries. Hospitalizations for less severe cardiovascular diseases were highest in the high income countries.
Lead study investigators from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai presented their Patterns of Non-Adherence to Anti-Platelet Regimens in Stented Patients (PARIS) study findings at the ESC Congress 2013 in Amsterdam organized by the European Society of Cardiology. Their new study results show among patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with stents, the risk of cardiovascular complications after stopping dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) is highly variable depending on the context, and some patients experience no complications at all.
A new study — the first to apply a new screening technique to human platelets — netted a potential drug target for preventing dangerous blood clots in high-risk people.
Non-invasive treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm clinical trial (N-TA^3CT) investigates what could be the first medical therapy available in the high-stakes course of treating aortic aneurysms.
When a beating heart slips into an irregular, rhythm, the treatment is electric current from a pacemaker or defibrillator. But the electricity itself can cause pain, tissue damage and other side-effects. Now, researchers want to replace jolts with a gentler remedy: light.
Two treatments that slow the development of diabetes also may protect people from heart disease, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
Researchers have published the benefits of statins in the prevention of heart attacks and strokes in subjects previously thought at too low a risk to be treated. They present new clinical and public health challenges with respect to the use of statins in primary prevention of heart attacks and strokes in apparently healthy subjects at low risk.
Evidence from people with heart disease strongly supports the existence of the molecular link first discovered in laboratory mice between the body’s natural circadian rhythms and cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac death — the No. 1 cause of death in heart attacks, a scientist said here today at the 246th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.
Electronic sutures that monitor surgical incisions for healing and infection. Electronic films that cling to the heart, monitoring the heartbeat and alerting the patient and cardiologist when medical attention is needed. Flexible plastic electronic appliques that stick to the skin like temporary tattoos and monitor hydration in athletes. Those and other futuristic advances are on the agenda here today at a symposium during the 246th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
Implementation of a large-scale hypertension program that included evidence-based guidelines and development and sharing of performance metrics was associated with a near-doubling of hypertension control between 2001 and 2009, compared to only modest improvements in state and national control rates, according to a study in the August 21 issue of JAMA.
Older heart patients present unique challenges for determining the optimal dosages of medications, so a new study from researchers at Duke Medicine offers some rare clarity about the use of drugs that are used to treat patients with heart attacks.
A multi-institutional team led by Dianna Milewicz, M.D., Ph.D., of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) has found a recurrent genetic mutation that has been linked to deadly thoracic aortic dissections in family members as young as 17 years of age.
A decade-long study in Corpus Christi, Texas, shows steep drops in stroke, but the stroke rate is still 34 percent higher among Mexican Americans than non-Hispanic whites.
Rural households in developing countries often rely on burning biomass, such as wood, animal dung and waste from agricultural crops, to cook and heat their homes. The practice is long known to cause lung disease, but a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine links the resulting smoke to cardiovascular problems, including an increase in artery-clogging plaques, artery thickness and higher blood pressure.
Long-term use of a calcium-channel blocker to treat hypertension (high blood pressure) is associated with higher breast cancer risk, according to a report published by JAMA Internal Medicine, a JAMA Network publication.
Older women who take certain types of medication to combat high blood pressure may be putting themselves at greater risk for developing breast cancer, according to a new study by a team of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center scientists led by Christopher Li, M.D., Ph.D. The study is the first to observe that long-term use of a class of antihypertensive drugs known as calcium-channel blockers in particular are associated with breast cancer risk. The team’s findings will be published online Aug. 5 in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have discovered a new molecular pathway responsible for causing heart failure and showed that a first-in-class prototype drug, JQ1, blocks this pathway to protect the heart from damage.
In the past, the only treatment available for varicose veins was a type of surgery called vein stripping, which required general anesthesia and weeks of downtime. Now, dermatologists who have received additional training are using minimally invasive procedures to treat varicose veins, allowing patients to get back to their lives more quickly and resume activities that they may have avoided beforehand.
Johns Hopkins Nursing researchers focus on the discrimination-depression link, herpes tests for teens, the baby-mom bond, violence against women across the globe, and more in the July-August 2013 research news briefs.
Scientists seeking to harness the healing power of a miniscule signaling molecule that plays a critical role in certain acute and chronic diseases have been awarded a Program Project Grant (PPG) of nearly $10 million by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.
A study of two sets of 894 matched Emergency Department (ED) patients presenting with chest pain revealed that the use of coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA) led to fewer hospital admissions and shorter ED stays. According to lead researcher Michael Poon, MD, of Stony Brook University School of Medicine, the findings provide evidence that CCTA offers an alternative means of improving the triage of chest pain patients. The paper, “Associations Between Routine Coronary Computed Tomographic Angiography and Reduced Unnecessary Hospital Admissions, Length of Stay, Recidivism Rates, and Invasive Coronary Angiography in the Emergency Department Triage of Chest Pain,” is published online in the August 6 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Vanderbilt Heart and Vascular Institute is participating in the VELOCITY study, a randomized controlled clinical study to assess the safety and feasibility of a rapid cooling system for heart attack patients that could minimize damage to the heart.
The deadly condition known as pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), which afflicts up to 150,000 Americans each year, may be reversible by using an inhalable gene therapy, report an international team of researchers led by investigators at the Cardiovascular Research Center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
A team of University of California, San Diego researchers has designed new compounds that mimic those naturally used by the body to regulate blood pressure. The most promising of them may literally be the key to controlling hypertension, switching off the signaling pathways that lead to the deadly condition.
Mark Feuerstein plays a brilliant physician on the hit TV show Royal Pains, but the drama was all too real when his newborn daughter Addie was diagnosed with a rare congenital heart defect. Fortunately, this scary episode had a happy ending, thanks to a determined mother and expert medical care, reports an article in the August issue of Heart Insight, a quarterly magazine for patients, their families and caregivers. Heart Insight is published by the American Heart Association (AHA) and Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
A drug already approved to treat multiple sclerosis may also hold promise for treating cardiac hypertrophy, or thickening of the cardiac muscle--a disorder that often leads to heart failure, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine report.
A Johns Hopkins study finds that healthy people who carry a genetic mutation for arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C) are at much higher risk of developing the symptoms of the life-threatening heart disease if they participate in endurance sports and frequent exercise. The study also suggests that those carriers who significantly cut back on their exercise regimen may reduce their risk or delay the onset of symptoms.
People with cheerful temperaments are significantly less likely to suffer a coronary event such as a heart attack or sudden cardiac death, new Johns Hopkins research suggests.
Aspirin has been widely used for more than 50 years as a common, inexpensive blood thinner for patients with heart disease and stroke, but doctors have little understanding of how it works and why some people benefit and others don’t.
Researchers led by M. Mahmood Hussain, PhD, found that a regulatory RNA molecule interferes with the production of lipoproteins and, in a mouse model, reduces hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis.
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of aortic atherosclerosis can predict the risk of heart attacks and other cardiovascular events in otherwise healthy individuals, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.
A study by researchers at Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Department of Pharmacology at the University of California, San Diego, shows that a protein called MCL-1, which promotes cell survival, is essential for normal heart function.
Impaired heart function among obese children and adolescents may be an indicator of future heart disease, a new clinical trial finds. The results were presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society’s 95th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
A type of drug normally used to treat heart failure and high blood pressure helped prevent weight gain and other complications related to a high-fat diet in an animal study. The results will be presented Saturday at The Endocrine Society’s 95th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
Too much sugar can set people down a pathway to heart failure, according to a study led by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).
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