New research suggests that attempts to isolate an elusive adult stem cell from blood to understand and potentially improve cardiovascular health – a task considered possible but very difficult – might not be necessary.
Working with mice and rabbits, Johns Hopkins scientists have found a way to block abnormal cholesterol production, transport and breakdown, successfully preventing the development of atherosclerosis, the main cause of heart attacks and strokes and the number-one cause of death among humans. The condition develops when fat builds inside blood vessels over time and renders them stiff, narrowed and hardened, greatly reducing their ability to feed oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle and the brain.
• In kidney disease patients, 30 minutes of walking improved the responsiveness of certain immune cells to a bacterial challenge and induced a systemic anti-inflammatory environment in the body. • Six months of regular walking reduced immune cell activation and markers of systemic inflammation.
Cigarette smoking among obese women appears to interfere with their ability to taste fats and sweets, a new study shows. Despite craving high-fat, sugary foods, these women were less likely than others to perceive these tastes, which may drive them to consume more calories.
Right now, options are limited for preventing heart attacks. However, the day may come when treatments target the heart attack gene, myeloid related protein-14 (MRP-14, also known as S100A9) and defang its ability to produce heart attack-inducing blood clots, a process referred to as thrombosis.
Early strengthening activities can lead to a decrease in cardiometabolic health risks in children and adolescents, according to results of a new study by a Baylor University professor and a team of researchers.
Men with long-term HIV infections are at higher risk than uninfected men of developing plaque in their coronary arteries, regardless of their other risk factors for coronary artery disease, according to results of a study led by Johns Hopkins researchers. A report on the research appears in the April 1 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.
Programming highlights from Experimental Biology 2014, April 26-30 in San Diego. Topics include anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pathology, nutrition, and pharmacology.
Young adults with such cardiac risk factors as high blood pressure and elevated glucose levels have significantly worse cognitive function in middle age, according to a new study by dementia researchers at UC San Francisco.
In addition to its role as a sodium and potassium ion transporter, the ubiquitous sodium pump displays “hybrid” function by simultaneously importing protons into the cell. Proton inflow might play a role in certain pathologies, including heart attack and stroke.
Researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Murray, Utah, have identified a biological process that may help physicians predict when someone with heart disease is likely to have a heart attack in the near future.
Researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Murray, Utah, have discovered that elevated levels of two recently identified proteins in the body are inflammatory markers and indicators of the presence of cardiovascular disease.
Poor blood pressure control among patients with atrial fibrillation is associated with a 50-percent increased risk of stroke, according to an analysis presented by Duke Medicine researchers.
New guidelines that ease the recommended blood pressure could result in 5.8 million U.S. adults no longer needing hypertension medication, according to an analysis by Duke Medicine researchers.
The AHA/ACC formulas for heart attack and stroke risk released in November were described as overpredicting a patient’s risk, but the latest findings published in JAMA suggest otherwise.
A new study by researchers at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School indicates that statin medication prescribed to lower cholesterol and decrease the chance of having a heart attack and stroke, also improves a man’s erectile function.
Narine Sarvazyan, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology and physiology at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, has invented a new organ to help return blood flow from veins lacking functional valves.
In the largest study to ever investigate the effects of exercise training in patients with heart failure, exercise training reduced the risk for subsequent all-cause mortality or all-cause hospitalization in women by 26 percent, compared with 10 percent in men.
Premi Haynes, a physiology Ph.D. candidate in the Campbell Muscle Lab, has documented the different cellular patterns and mechanical functions in contractions of the human heart. The findings indicate possible therapeutic targets for treatment of disease and heart failure.
A new microfluidic method for evaluating drugs commonly used for preventing heart attacks has found that while aspirin can prevent dangerous blood clots in some at-risk patients, it may not be effective in all patients with narrowed arteries. The study, which involved 14 human subjects, used a device that simulated blood flowing through narrowed coronary arteries to assess effects of anti-clotting drugs.
Most people with Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms (AAA) are not even aware they have the condition, resulting in more than 30,000 deaths in the United States each year. This winter alone, Apostolos K. Tassiopoulos, MD, Chief of the Division of Vascular Surgery, Stony Brook University Hospital (SBUH), has seen the greatest increase of AAA cases in his entire 15 year career.
Mount Sinai researchers have linked high levels of exposure to inhaled particulate matter by first responders at Ground Zero to the risk of obstructed sleep apnea and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), both conditions that may impact cardiovascular health.
A gene linked by genome-wide association studies to risk of cardiac arrhythmia is found to play only a minimal role in the heart. The mutations within the gene in actuality regulate a different gene, which appears to be the primary gene responsible for cardiac arrhythmia risk, according to a study published March 18 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
New guidelines for using statins to treat high cholesterol and prevent cardiovascular disease are projected to result in 12.8 million more U.S. adults taking the drugs, according to a research team led by Duke Medicine scientists.
Demand for MRI is growing to help diagnose certain diseases and conditions, but due to the strong magnetic forces they usually aren't recommended for patients with implanted cardiac devices. The University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center is investigating ways to make diagnostic imaging possible for heart patients.
UT Southwestern Medical Center cardiologists have defined a novel heart failure symptom in advanced heart failure patients: shortness of breath while bending over, such as when putting on shoes.
Lingering stress from major disasters can damage health years later, according to a new Tulane University study that found a three-fold spike in heart attacks continued in New Orleans six years after Hurricane Katrina.
Scientists have discovered a previously unrecognized gene variation that makes humans have healthier blood lipid levels and reduced risk of heart attacks. But even more significant is how they found the gene, which had been hiding in plain sight.
Heart attack and stroke are among the most serious threats to health. But novel research at UT Southwestern Medical Center has linked two major biological processes that occur at the onset of these traumatic events and, ultimately, can lead to protection for the heart.
As long as inexpensive statins, which lower cholesterol, are readily available and patients don’t mind taking them, it doesn’t make sense to do a heart scan to measure how much plaque has built up in a patient’s coronary arteries before prescribing the pills, according to a new study by researchers at UC San Francisco.
Cardiovascular researchers from the Cardiovascular Research Center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, and University of California, San Diego have identified a small, but powerful, new player in the onset and progression of heart failure. Their findings, published in the journal Nature on March 12, also show how they successfully blocked the newly discovered culprit to halt the debilitating and chronic life-threatening condition in its tracks.
Smaller, smarter cardiac monitoring available at the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center will help patients find the answer to unexplained fainting or heart palpitations. Smaller than a key, it’s inserted just beneath the skin and allows wireless, remote monitoring of heart rhythms.
Having a big belly has consequences beyond trouble squeezing into your pants. It’s detrimental to your health, even if you have a healthy body mass index (BMI), a new international collaborative study led by a Mayo Clinic researcher found. Men and women with large waist circumferences were more likely to die younger, and were more likely to die from illnesses such as heart disease, respiratory problems, and cancer after accounting for body mass index, smoking, alcohol use and physical activity. The study is published in the March edition of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
Doctors at the Stony Brook Heart Institute Electrophysiology Lab are using a new nonsurgical technique called the LARIAT Suture Delivery Device to treat patients with atrial fibrillation, or A-Fib, who cannot tolerate blood thinning medication.
It would take a year for Pam Mace, a registered nurse living in Gross Ille, to understand why she had a stroke at age 37. Signaled by something as seemingly benign as headaches and high blood pressure or dramatic like a stroke, the vascular disease FMD puts thousands of young women, like Mace, at-risk for life-threatening cardiovascular problems. Through her advocacy, the nation recognizes March 11 at FMD Awareness Day.
Two recent genetic studies expand the list of genes involved with body fat and body mass index, and their connection to major Western health problems: heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.
In a study that began in a pair of infant siblings with a rare heart defect, Johns Hopkins researchers say they have identified a key molecular switch that regulates heart cell division and normally turns the process off around the time of birth. Their research, they report, could advance efforts to turn the process back on and regenerate heart tissue damaged by heart attacks or disease.
BOSTON – Call it what you will – getting red in the face, hot under the collar, losing your cool, blowing your top – we all experience anger. And while we know that anger is a normal, sometimes even beneficial emotion, we‘re also aware of the often harmful connection between anger and health. New research from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical shows an even more compelling reason to think about getting anger in check – a nearly fivefold increase in risk for heart attack in the two hours following outbursts of anger.
Doctors in the U.S. and Japan have devised a way to treat atrial fibrillation by adding a little alcohol to minimally invasive therapies that target a cluster of misbehaving nerves known to trigger arrhythmia, dulling or stopping the transmission of electrical impulses that cause atrial fibrillation.
When a heart gets damaged, such as during a major heart attack, there’s no easy fix. But scientists working on a way to repair the vital organ have now engineered tissue that closely mimics natural heart muscle that beats, not only in a lab dish but also when implanted into animals. They presented their latest results at the 247th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society.
Forty-nine percent of the adult population will have at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States The good news? It can be prevented. Judith Mackall, MD, Cardiologist at University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, offers three tips for men and women to help improve their heart health and reduce the risk of developing heart disease.
A new high-tech catheter device can improve outcomes of patients treated for atrial fibrillation, the most common irregular heartbeat.
Using an inexpensive 3-D printer, biomedical engineers at Washington University in St. Louis and around the world have developed a custom-fitted, implantable device with embedded sensors that could transform treatment and prediction of cardiac disorders.
A vascular disease called fibromuscular dysplasia, which can cause high blood pressure, kidney failure, stroke and other symptoms -- mostly in women -- is “poorly understood by many healthcare providers,” according to a Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association.
A new blood test can detect heart attacks hours faster than the current gold-standard blood test, a study has found. The new test measures a protein that is released to the bloodstream by dying heart muscle within just 15 minutes of cardiac damage.
An updated guideline from the American Academy of Neurology recommends that people with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation, or irregular heartbeat, take oral anticoagulants, a type of blood thinner pill, to prevent stroke. The guideline is published in the February 25, 2014, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The World Stroke Organization has endorsed the updated guideline.
A panel of experts, including researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is recommending that depression be added to obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and smoking as a cardiac risk factor.
Scott Shapiro, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, found that gene therapy can elicit a regenerative response in pig hearts.
A large international study has discovered 11 new genetic signals associated with blood pressure levels. Ten of these signals are "druggable"--in regions with genes encoding proteins that appear to be likely targets for existing drugs or drugs in current development.
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