Feature Channels: Heart Disease

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have developed a radically new approach to growing in the lab adult-like human heart muscle from human induced pluripotent stem cells in only four weeks. They compressed the development timeframe into a faster, more complete transition to cardiac maturity than any other team has done so far. They formed cardiac tissues from early-stage iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes, soon after the initiation of spontaneous contractions, by subjecting the cells encapsulated in hydrogel to increasingly intense physical conditioning.

• share
• favorite_border

Hackensack Meridian Health Bayshore Medical Center is proud to announce that it has expanded services to offer transcatheter arterial chemoembolization, also known as transarterial chemoembolization, or TACE. TACE is an image-guided, non-surgical procedure used to treat malignant lesions in the liver. Performed in the Interventional Radiology department, an X-ray guided catheter delivers chemotherapy medication and embolization materials into the blood vessels in the liver that lead to the tumor.

• share
• favorite_border

The American Heart Association will kick off Move More Month to rally everyone – individuals, friends and families, neighborhoods, communities, schools, and workplaces to join together and move for health, fun and togetherness. To keep up the momentum after Move More Month, the Monday Mile is a great way to kick off each week by moving and getting exercise. Some strategies for getting started with during Move More Month are included as well.

• share
• favorite_border

Eating a handful of pecans every day for four weeks improved certain markers of cardiometabolic disease risk, including insulin sensitivity, among a group of overweight and obese adults with excess abdominal fat, according to a new study.

• share
• favorite_border

The Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research today announces that Dr. Slava Epelman has accepted the brand new role of Loretta Rogers Chair in Immunobioengineering.

• share
• favorite_border

A University of Delaware researcher is investigating a novel compound's role in combating age-related chronic diseases like mild cognitive disorder and dementia. The study is funded by a grant from the National Institute on Aging.

• share
• favorite_border

Patients treated for heart attack were 48 percent less likely to have a sudden return to the hospital when educated using a multi-factored discharge and follow-up program

• share
• favorite_border

Adults with diabetes are less likely to visit the dentist than people with prediabetes or without diabetes, finds a new study led by researchers at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing and East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine.

• share
• favorite_border

Click here for the latest research and features on Children's Health.

• share
• favorite_border

An international research group studying 520,000 people from around the world has identified 22 new genetic risk factors for stroke, tripling the number of gene regions known to affect stroke risk. These results provide new clues on stroke mechanisms and could help scientists identify drug targets for treatment. The work is the largest genetic study on stroke ever.

• share
• favorite_border

For 20 consecutive years, Mount Sinai holds "two-star" rating from New York State Department of Health for percutaneous coronary interventions

• share
• favorite_border

The drug, regadenoson, is already commonly used to image cardiac patients’ hearts. But the UVA research suggests it could be put to another, lifesaving purpose.

• share
• favorite_border

Click here to go directly to Newswise's Obesity News Source

• share
• favorite_border

A well-studied enzyme called SIRT1 declines in the blood vessels with age and restoring it reverses the effects of vascular aging in mice. After receiving a supplement called NMN, older mice showed increased capillary density, blood flow, mobility, and endurance

• share
• favorite_border

-Scientists identify mechanism behind vascular aging, muscle demise in mice. -Treatment with chemical compounds reversed vascular aging, stimulated blood vessel growth and blood flow, boosted exercise capacity in aging animals. -Findings set the stage for therapies in humans to stave off a range of conditions linked to vascular aging.

• share
• favorite_border

People with heart and vascular conditions have benefited from technologies and treatments introduced in recent years. But traditional qualities such as expertise and teamwork are essential in making the most effective use of new products and procedures, says David Zhao, M.D., chief of cardiovascular medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

• share
• favorite_border

New research from scientists at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology shows how a diet high in fat and cholesterol depletes the ranks of artery-protecting immune cells, turning them into promoters of inflammation, which exacerbate atherosclerotic plaque buildup that occurs in cardiovascular disease. The team has also found that high density lipoproteins (HDL)—more commonly known as “good cholesterol”—counteract this process, helping the protective immune cells maintain their identity and keep arteries clear.

• share
• favorite_border

Scott & White Medical Center – Temple, part of Baylor Scott & White, is one of 15 U.S. hospitals selected to participate in the American College of Cardiology Patient Navigator Program: Focus MI Quality Campaign as a “Diplomat Hospital.” This is an expanded version of the original Patient Navigator Program launched in 2013. Scott & White – Temple was one of 35 pioneering hospitals chosen to provide personalized services to heart disease patients to help them avoid a quick return to the hospital.

• share
• favorite_border

Limiting first-year medical residents to 16-hour work shifts, compared to “flexing” them to allow for some longer shifts, generally makes residents more satisfied with their training and work-life balance, but their training directors more dissatisfied with curtailed educational opportunities. That’s one conclusion of a new study published online March 20 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

• share
• favorite_border

Oral micronized progesterone (OMP) may diminish hot flashes and night sweats in perimenopausal women, new research from Canada reports. The results will be presented on Monday, March 19 at ENDO 2018, the 100th annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in Chicago, Ill.

• share
• favorite_border

Children with mild to moderate asthma do not benefit from a common practice of increasing their inhaled steroids at the first signs of an asthma exacerbation, according to clinical trial results published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Researchers found short-term increases in inhaled steroids did not prevent attacks in children aged 5 to 11, and may even slow a child’s growth.

• share
• favorite_border

An Ohio integrated health system and a national social enterprise have announced a new alliance to mobilize tens of millions of dollars for underinvested communities—starting with a $45 million effort to scale up economic opportunity and improve health outcomes in Toledo and the surrounding region over the next decade.

• share
• favorite_border

Hospitalized patients with stable coronary artery disease (CAD) may need frequent glucose monitoring to prevent hypoglycemia and death, new research reports. The results will be presented in a poster on Saturday, March 17 at ENDO 2018, the annual 100th meeting of the Endocrine Society in Chicago, Ill.

• share
• favorite_border

Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) Chief Scientific Officer Peter Jones, Ph.D., D.Sc., will be awarded an honorary doctorate from South Africa’s Stellenbosch University (SU) in recognition of a lifetime of scientific achievement and dedication to improving cancer treatment.

• share
• favorite_border

A new, large-scale study – led by researchers at the Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and published online today in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes – examined the relationship between 30-day episode spending for inpatient and post-discharge care and patient mortality following a hospital admission for heart attack.

• share
• favorite_border

Physician-researchers from the Cardiac Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) presented new findings on pediatric cardiovascular disease at the American College of Cardiology’s 67th Annual Scientific Session & Expo 2018 in Orlando, Fla. Among many abstracts presented were emergency department visits in patients with congenital heart disease, social risk factors for readmission, factors predicting mortality after prolonged critical illness and more.

• share
• favorite_border

Largest study to date addressing the prevalence of metabolic abnormalities in testicular cancer survivors who received prior chemotherapy publishes findings in the latest issue of JNCCN

• share
• favorite_border

The Great Recession, spanning 2008 to 2010, was associated with heightened cardiovascular risk factors, including increased blood pressure and glucose levels.The connections were especially pronounced among older homeowners and people still in the work force,

• share
• favorite_border

Genetic mutations linked to heart disease have been considered a leading cause of sudden infant death syndrome, but a new study by Mayo Clinic, British and Danish researchers finds they are to blame for far fewer SIDS deaths than previously thought. The findings are opening new lines of inquiry into possible causes of the syndrome and may help prevent unnecessary genetic testing of surviving family members. The study results appear in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

• share
• favorite_border

Two types of blood pressure medications — alpha blockers and alpha 2 agonist — show increased variability in blood pressure measurements between doctor visits, which is associated with an increased risk of death, according to new research from the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City have found that incorporating underused, but available, imaging technologies more precisely predicts who’s at risk for heart attacks and similar threats — in time to prevent them.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City have found that incorporating underused, but available, imaging technologies, such as PET/CT scans, more precisely predicts who’s at risk for heart attacks and similar threats — in time to prevent them.

• share
• favorite_border

The stress of open-heart surgery significantly reduces patients’ vitamin D levels, but aggressive supplementation with vitamin D3, just before and after surgery, can completely eliminate the observed drop in vitamin D, researchers have found.

• share
• favorite_border

African-American men successfully lowered their high blood pressure to healthy levels when aided by a pharmacist and their local barber, according to a new study from the Smidt Heart Institute.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Protein pathways that are closely linked to changes in both triglyceride and hemoglobin A1c levels in diabetic patients have been identified in new research by the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City.

• share
• favorite_border

Patients who undergo a transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR — a minimally-invasive surgical procedure that repairs a damaged heart valve — experienced a significant increase in their quality of life, according to a new study by researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City.

• share
• favorite_border

Doctors often cite the high price of a prescription drug as a reason they don't prescribe it, while patients similarly say that cost is a main reason they quit taking a drug. Removing this financial barrier might increase the use of evidence-based therapies, improve patient adherence to those medications, and potentially save lives. That theory was tested in a study of heart attack survivors led by the Duke Clinical Research Institute; findings were presented March 11 at the American College of Cardiology annual scientific sessions meeting in Orlando.

• share
• favorite_border

Data presented from a Late-Breaking Clinical Trial has the potential to change the standard of care for HER2-positive breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

• share
• favorite_border

Today, in a late-breaking featured clinical research session at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions 2018, researchers from Penn Medicine present first-of-its-kind data on the impact of real-time CYP2C19 genotype results when prescribing antiplatelet drugs in the clinic.

• share
• favorite_border

Doctors evaluating patients for blockages in the heart are aided by having a good roadmap of the vascular terrain before they can insert stents to clear the impasse. Two technologies have been used with equal success, but now a study presented March 10 at the American College of Cardiology annual meeting by Duke cardiologists shows that the newer method carries a much lower cost, potentially saving each patient at least $800.

• share
• favorite_border

Patients who receive cardiac positron emission testing (PET) imaging instead of single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scan experienced a significant increase in the detection of severe obstructive coronary artery disease, according to researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City.

• share
• favorite_border

ORLANDO: Cleveland Clinic researchers found that implementing a four-step protocol for the most severe type of heart attack not only improved outcomes and reduced mortality in both men and women, but eliminated or reduced the gender disparities in care and outcomes typically seen in this type of event. The research was presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 67th Annual Scientific Session and published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

• share
• favorite_border

Hackensack Meridian Health Bayshore Medical Center has resumed normal operations, accepting all emergency patients into the Emergency Department and continuing regularly scheduled procedures in the wake of needed repairs after a small fire and water damage forced the temporary closure of a limited number of inpatient care areas on February 25. As a result, the hospital also elected to transport patients to nearby Hackensack Meridian Health hospitals and to divert ambulances.

• share
• favorite_border

Heart-attack sufferers who receive treatment during periods when interventional cardiologists are away at academic conferences are more likely to survive in the month after their heart attack than patients receiving treatment during nonmeeting days.

• share
• favorite_border

One of the nation’s leading cardiologists is challenging the new hypertension guidelines, perhaps sparing up to 10 million people from unnecessarily aggressive blood pressure treatments. His team’s study results appear March 7 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

• share
• favorite_border

UC San Diego Health is the first hospital in California to use the fifth generation troponin test to detect damage to the heart. The test was approved in the United States in 2017.

• share
• favorite_border

Julie Work always ate healthy and exercised regularly. Then, she passed out behind the wheel, went to a cardiologist and learned she needed a pacemaker. After recovery, she signed up for exercise boot camp and pushed herself to the limit. She needed to two pacemaker adjustments to keep up with her intense exercise regime.

• share
• favorite_border

A study of mouse healing after severe heart attacks focused on the heart and spleen, measuring types and numbers of immune cells; types and amounts of lipid signaling compounds; expression of enzymes that produce those signaling compounds; and which enzymes are key to resolution of inflammation.

• share
• favorite_border

SBP researchers have discovered that accumulation of ceramides—a type of lipid (fat)— plays a crucial role in lipotoxic cardiomyopathy (LCM)—a heart condition that often occurs in patients with diabetes and obesity. The study, published today in Cell Reports, also identified several potential therapeutic targets that could prevent or reverse the effects of LCM.