Feature Channels: Cardiovascular Health

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No two hearts beat alike. The size and shape of the the heart can vary from one person to the next. These differences can be particularly pronounced for people living with heart disease, as their hearts and major vessels work harder to overcome any compromised function.

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In recent years, wearable devices such as smartwatches and rings, as well as smart scales, have become ubiquitous – “must-haves” for the health conscious to self-monitor heart rate, blood pressure, and other vital signs.

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Bisexual women were half as likely as their heterosexual peers to have high scores on a scale measuring cardiovascular health, new research from Columbia University School of Nursing shows.

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A study of 323 pediatric heart transplants over 36 years at the University of Florida found that in recent years, more infants with serious congenital heart disease were offered heart transplants, but they had improved outcomes compared to patients in previous decades.

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University of Utah electrical and computer engineering assistant professor Benjamin Sanchez Terrones and U associate professor of medicine Benjamin Steinberg have published a new study that shows wearable devices such as the Samsung Galaxy watch 4, Fitbit smart scales, or Moodmetric smart rings, among others, have sensing technology that could interfere with cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) such as pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), and cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) devices.

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Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center and Hackensack University Medical Center, which are licensed by the New Jersey Department of Health for open heart surgery, have earned distinguished three-star ratings from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) for their patient care and exemplary outcomes in adult cardiac surgery.

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In a rare and high-risk procedure, a 1-month-old baby became the first patient with single-ventricle heart disease to receive a ventricular assist device (VAD) at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

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Below are some of the latest articles that have been added to the Chemistry news channel on Newswise.

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UCLA Health tip sheet: A brief roundup of news and story ideas from the experts at UCLA Health.

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Prazosin, a medication FDA-approved for hypertension and used off-label for alcohol use disorder, may help prevent drinking relapse in people with cardiovascular or behavioral symptoms of alcohol withdrawal, according to a new study involving active-duty soldiers.

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While sudden cardiac arrest is rare, it can happen to anyone at any time – including children, non-athletes and healthy individuals. Educating youth and adults to act swiftly and use an AED when they witness medical emergencies can help save lives. The AED is a portable electronic device that automatically diagnoses potentially life-threatening heart rhythms and delivers a shock only if necessary.

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Analyzing the most extensive datasets in the U.S., researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have revealed that vaccination against COVID-19 is associated with fewer heart attacks, strokes, and other cardiovascular issues among people who were infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The research letter, “Impact of Vaccination on Major Adverse Cardiovascular Events in Patients with COVID-19 Infection,” was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology on February 20. The research will also be presented on March 5, 2023 in a poster session in New Orleans, LA, at the American College of Cardiology’s 72nd Annual Scientific Session Together With World Heart Federation’s World Congress of Cardiology.

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ROCKVILLE, MD – Women are often underrepresented in cardiac clinical trials—yet they are at least at equally high risk of death due to cardiovascular disease, and at higher risk of developing drug-induced heart complications compared to men. Clinical trials of medicines generally rely on electrocardiograms (EKG) to measure a patient’s heart’s response to a medicine and determine its safety, yet males and females have a number of differences in their heart physiology that are reflected in consistent variations in their EKGs.

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ROCKVILLE, MD – COVID-19 infections can cause potentially life-threatening heart issues. Studies suggest that people with COVID-19 are 55% more likely to suffer a major adverse cardiovascular event, including heart attack, stroke and death, than those without COVID-19. They’re also more likely to have other heart issues, like arrhythmias (abnormal heart rhythms) and myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle).

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Although the public had been alerted that this winter could be a potentially bad flu season, barely half of Americans said in January that they had received a flu shot, a vaccination level unchanged in a representative national panel from the comparable period last year.

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Eduardo Marbán, MD, PhD, Eugenio Cingolani, MD, y Hasan Jilaihawi, MD, presentarán avances en tratamientos y procedimientos en cardiología a los asistentes a uno de los principales congresos de cardiólogos de México.

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The second most common reason adults in the United States go to the emergency department is chest pain, yet more than half of those visits have noncardiac

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In 2017, Vanderbilt University Medical Center was selected to be one of four U.S. medical centers in a Strategically Focused Research Network (SFRN) on Obesity funded by a four-year, $15 million award from the American Heart Association to study obesity and train future obesity-focused investigators.

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Use of FFRCT as a diagnostic tool has become more widespread since 2021, when the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association endorsed FFRCT as a clinical pathway in its updated guidelines for chest pain evaluation and diagnosis. Dr. Rabbat's publications on FFRCT were referenced in these guidelines, including Loyola University Medical Center's real-world experience demonstrating the safe deferral of unnecessary invasive procedures utilizing an FFRCT pathway.

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People with diabetes are twice as likely to develop dementia as those without the disease. In a new study, people with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes who took the diabetes drug pioglitazone were less likely to later develop dementia than those who did not take the drug. The study is published in the February 15, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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People living in disadvantaged neighborhoods—areas with higher poverty levels and fewer educational and employment opportunities—had an increased risk of dying within a month of being hospitalized for stroke, epilepsy and other neurologic diseases compared to people living in neighborhoods with fewer disadvantages, according to new research published in the February 15, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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With February designated as American Heart Month, it’s a good reminder for people with cancer to monitor their cardiovascular health.

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Internationally recognized cardiologist in heart transplantation Jon Kobashigawa, MD, director of Advanced Heart Disease and the Heart Transplant Program in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, and chief medical officer of the California Heart Center Foundation, an affiliate of Cedars-Sinai, has been selected to receive the highly coveted 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT).

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If you look at Aidan Marcus, you would have no way of knowing everything he has gone through in his 17 months of life. His mom, Ambar, says, “He looks like a normal kid.” But when she was 22 weeks pregnant, she and her husband, Justin, who live in Silver Spring, Maryland, learned that their baby boy’s heart wasn’t developing properly. Aidan was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a congenital heart defect in which the left side of the heart is underdeveloped — a condition that affects about 1,000 newborns in the U.S. each year.

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Sleep irregularity — chronically disrupted sleep and highly variable sleep durations night after night — may increase the risk for atherosclerosis, according to a study led by Kelsie Full, PhD, MPH, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

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Marking the five-year anniversary of the $50 million gift that named the Smidt Heart Institute, Cedars Sinai is highlighting major research breakthroughs and clinical innovations pioneered by one of the nation’s leading destinations for cardiac care.

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Neighborhood redevelopment, which transforms low-income neighborhoods through rezoning, new construction and renovation, can lead to health benefits, such as greater access to fresh produce, improved housing, and more green spaces. But these advantages may not extend to all area residents. More information is needed about the impact of redevelopment, also known as urban renewal, on health, particularly if it contributes to inequities among middle-aged and older adults.

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Investigators in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai have confirmed that people who have had COVID-19 have an increased risk for new-onset diabetes—the most significant contributor to cardiovascular disease.

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Hearing that a child needs heart surgery can be overwhelming. Fortunately, at Ochsner Health and Ochsner Hospital for Children, patients and their families are in expert hands. Recent pediatric outcomes for congenital heart patients show the hospital system’s highly specialized surgeons performed significantly better than others in the region -- even when caring for the most complex cases. For the fifth year in a row, Ochsner’s surgical outcomes also continued to exceed national averages.

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Los investigadores de Mayo Clinic hicieron una revisión de los atletas que se trataron en Mayo durante un período de 20 años, y los hallazgos publicados en Mayo Clinic Proceedings sugieren que después de que la afección del paciente se haya evaluado y tratado de manera adecuada, es factible que los atletas puedan volver a sus actividades de forma segura.

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Atletas com doença cardíaca genética frequentemente são considerados inaptos a participar de esportes competitivos devido ao risco de parada cardíaca súbita. Embora a intenção dos médicos seja compreensível, será que essa é necessariamente a melhor abordagem?

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Preventing heart disease starts much earlier than you may realize, according to a new American Heart Association scientific statement published today in a Go Red For Women spotlight issue of the Association’s flagship, peer-reviewed journal Circulation.

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UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have mapped gene control elements in specialized cardiac cells responsible for coordinating heartbeats. The findings of the genome exploration study, published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, provide insight into how heartbeats are regulated and could impact diagnosis and risk prediction for a variety of common arrhythmias.

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The Society of Thoracic Surgeons has launched a new risk calculator to estimate the risk of mitral valve repair for patients with mitral valve prolapse and degenerative primary mitral regurgitation.

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A necklace that could help you stop smoking is now on the horizon. Northwestern Medicine researchers have developed a smart neck-worn device resembling a lapis blue pendant that detects a user’s smoking much more reliably than previous systems.

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New study of sodium content in foods may assist in reducing heart disease.

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A large international clinical study finds that patients with large strokes had a dramatically better recovery after endovascular thrombectomy plus medical management than patients receiving only standard medical management. The study was published Feb. 10 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with its presentation at the International Stroke Conference in Dallas.

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A first-of-its-kind study finds a natural coconut sugar may help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by improving blood vessel health and managing high blood pressure. The study is published ahead of print in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

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UK HealthCare and St. Claire HealthCare have announced a collaboration to expand cardiovascular services to the Morehead area. St. Claire HealthCare now offers Morehead-area residents the benefit of UK HealthCare physician expertise in subspeciality cardiovascular services as part of the UK Gill Heart and Vascular Institute’s Gill Affiliate Network.

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Morristown Medical Center’s Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute’s structural heart program reached a significant milestone of performing over 4,000 transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures with well over 650 in 2022 alone.

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Smoking tobacco and vaping electronic cigarettes may increase healthy young people’s risk for developing severe COVID illness.

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Binghamton University Assistant Professor Tracy Hookway has received funding to create 2D and 3D models of human cardiac cells and investigate their functions.

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It’s not all about the cholesterol when it comes to heart health. A Penn State Health thoracic surgeon tells you all you need to know about A1C.

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Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women and men in the United States. It causes one in every four U.S. deaths.