Feature Channels: Heart Disease

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In a new, large-scale study, researchers examined the link between CHD deaths and firefighting and looked at specific job duties to see which might increase the risk of dying from a coronary event. The landmark study provides the strongest link to date between CHD and emergency firefighting duties. It found that putting out fires was associated with a risk about 10 to 100 times greater than the risk of dying from non-emergency duties.

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The tiny Drosophila fruit fly may pave the way to new methods for studying and finding treatments for heart disease, the leading cause of death in industrialized countries, according to a collaborative study by the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, UC San Diego (UCSD) and the University of Michigan.

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Knowing that women often experience different heart attack symptoms than men is important information for women and for those who love them, not only during National Heart month but year-around. Dr. C. Noel Bairey Merz, Medical Director of the Women's Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, is available for interviews. Dr. Bairey Merz also chairs the national WISE study.

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Johns Hopkins cardiologists are calling for an expansion of the criteria widely used by physicians to detect and assess a postmenopausal woman's chances of developing cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death among women in the United States.

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People living in neighborhoods defined as deprived "” where residents have overall lower education, income and employment levels "” are more likely to develop coronary heart disease and die from it than those living in less deprived neighborhoods, a new study finds.

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Heart disease differences in men and women continue to be poorly understood because women are included in clinical trials far less than men, and even when women are included, study results are not reported by sex, according to a study in the current issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

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Researchers seeking to improve diagnostic and treatment tools for women with heart disease have found that the outward expression of anger and hostility is higher in certain women with suspected coronary artery disease. But anger and hostility also are associated with atypical cardiac symptoms in women who do not have angiographic evidence of heart disease.

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A blood test for patients with coronary heart disease could help predict their risk for subsequent cardiovascular events or death, according to a study in the January 10 issue of JAMA.

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Contrary to previous studies, folic acid, a B vitamin, does not decrease the risk of coronary heart disease or stroke for people with a history of vascular disease, according to an article published by Tulane University researchers in the Dec. 13 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Coronary heart disease is a leading killer in the United States and there has been a big push to get people to lower their risk. But a new review casts doubt on whether large-scale interventions to reduce multiple cardiac risk factors really work.

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Statins can significantly reduce the incidence of stroke, myocardial infarction (MI), or all-cause death in patients with severe carotid arterial disease not revascularized, according to a new study presented at CHEST 2006, the 72nd annual international scientific assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP).

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Cardiac-related conditions such as congestive heart failure, hardening of the arteries, heart beat irregularities, and heart attack still account for four of the five most common principal diagnoses for hospitalizing elderly patients.

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A new study at Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research is looking for genetic factors that increase our susceptibility to some of this country's most common chronic infections, and ultimately, how that susceptibility might be linked to our risk for cardiovascular disease.

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Considering both direct and indirect costs, the financial burden on a woman who has chest pain and blocked coronary arteries may total more than $1 million during her lifetime. But even a woman who suffers from angina without an obstruction can expect her condition to take a toll in the neighborhood of $800,000, according to a report in the Aug. 29 issue of Circulation.

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Although human genes contribute significantly to a person's health and behavior, these two kinds of traits aren't closely linked at all.

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Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) isn't limited to soldiers or witnesses of a horrifying event. It can also appear after a heart attack, a stroke, or heart surgery. Not only does PTSD cause emotional and psychological distress, it may also slow recovery and hasten the progression of heart disease, reports the August issue of the Harvard Heart Letter.

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Hyperactive girls are more likely to develop hints of heart problems later in life, according to a new Finnish study that tracked 708 kids into young adulthood. However, it's not clear if there's a direct cause-and-effect link.

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Research conducted at the Methodist DeBakey Heart Center in Houston shows a 70 percent reduction in LDL-c, or bad cholesterol, using a combination therapy of two statin drugs. This is the largest reduction in bad cholesterol ever seen in a statin clinical trial.

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Despite advances in treatment, people with a heart attack who survive the first hit and get to a hospital remain in danger.

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Arterial diseases are responsible for heart attacks and strokes, the first and third leading causes of death in American men. To keep your arteries healthy, a regular exercise program is essential, reports the June issue of the Harvard Men's Health Watch.

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The American Heart Association's Go Red 5 Simple Steps for Women Nationwide To Take Charge of Their Heart Health During Women's Health Week For Women movement is encouraging women to follow 5 simple steps, during National Women's Health Week, to take charge of their heart health. While no time is better than the present, women can begin this new and improved lifestyle while preparing for the summer months.

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Cardiovascular disease costs the UK economy £29 billion a year in healthcare expenditure and lost productivity, reveals research published ahead of print in Heart.

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New research at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health, found that a common genetic variation makes some people more susceptible to coronary heart disease (CHD). Caucasians who carry this gene variation are approximately 1.5 times more likely to have a CHD event, such as a heart attack, than those who do not have the gene variation.

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Malaysian authorities have ruled its nation's food manufacturers can claim foods containing soy protein helps reduce a person's cholesterol, becoming the 8th nation to link soy with lower cholesterol. The decision is the result of a petition filed by The Solae Company.

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It is estimated that about two to three million women in the U.S. may suffer from undiagnosed microvascular disease, a dysfunction of the heart's small arteries. As part of its new Women's Heart Program, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is the only center on the West Coast providing an innovative, two-step pharmacological diagnostic test aimed at this condition.

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While African American men are more likely to die from cardiovascular disease, they paradoxically have fewer cases of coronary obstruction than clinically similar white men, according to a new national study led by a Medical College of Wisconsin researcher.

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Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered that distinctive features of the heart muscle as seen with a common imaging technique known as an echocardiography can be used to improve the ability of a genetic test to detect the presence of a potentially lethal, inherited heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM).

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A new study led by researchers at the Decker School of Nursing at Binghamton University, State University of New York, will look at ways to improve heart healthy behaviors among rural women. The work will be funded by a three year, $150,000 grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research.

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UAB researchers are investigating a potential connection between a common stomach bacteria and the incidence of heart disease among African-Americans.

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Despite the exaggerated, wrinkly snout and long, coarse, spiky hair reminiscent of the 1980s television space alien ALF, some very special swine are helping researchers at Purdue and Indiana universities understand human infertility, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

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A once-daily pill of low-dose aspirin helps lower the potential for clot-forming blood cells - in both men and women - to stick together in narrow blood vessels, a study from Johns Hopkins shows.

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Mayo Clinic researchers discovered in a first-of-its-kind study that people who undergo bariatric surgery -- commonly referred to as stomach stapling -- reap significant cardiac benefits compared with patients in a more traditional weight-reduction program.

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Deaths from coronary artery heart disease in Ireland have halved since the mid 1980s, finds research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

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Taking aspirin to prevent coronary heart disease is beneficial and cost-effective for a wider range of men than is often recognized, a study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found.

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February is American Heart Month, & coronary heart disease remains the #1 cause of death for both men and women in the U.S. A team of University of Missouri-Columbia researchers has studied the effects of exercise on the cardiovascular system using miniature Yucatan pigs & treadmills.

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A study conducted at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center suggests that angioplasty with coronary stenting may be a viable alternative treatment to more complicated bypass surgery for patients with left main coronary artery (LMCA) disease when medication-releasing stents are used.

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A Mayo Clinic research team used a simple, noninvasive tool to discover an association between stiffness in arteries and the presence and amount of coronary artery calcium, leading to the possibility of more accurate assessment of heart disease risk in adults with no symptoms, according to findings.

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Men who have survived a heart attack are at increased risk of bone loss and osteoporosis in later life, says Tulane University researcher Jeanette H. Magnus.

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Two studies on progeria detail the damage a mutant protein does to blood vessel cells of humans and mice. The discoveries offer increased hope for a cure for progeria, a genetic condition fatal in children, but may also provide key insight into the cause of adult heart disease.

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SWHR and WomenHeart, the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease, release "The 10 Q Report: Advancing Women's Heart Health Through Improved Research, Diagnosis and Treatment," which identifies the top ten unanswered questions related to the development, diagnosis and treatment of heart disease in women.

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A multi-year U-M study has revealed a link between high blood pressure and a particular gene variation. The discovery may help explain why some people develop high blood pressure and others don't "” and why some people's blood pressure increases as they age.

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Born with heart defects, many adults have grown up with limited function and the knowledge that their condition might shorten their lives. But many adults with heart defects can have a normal life expectancy, especially if they're treated by a doctor experienced with managing patients like them.

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Heart disease can be depressing "” literally. The February issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter notes that recurrence of cardiovascular events is more closely linked to depression than to high cholesterol, smoking, high blood pressure, or diabetes.

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The Feb. 7, 2006 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology includes a special supplement on the Women's Ischemia Syndrome Evaluation (WISE) Study, a multi-center, long-term investigation sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

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Almost twice as many women die from heart disease than from all forms of cancer combined. In honor of February's Heart Health Month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Women's Health and Never2Early.org are encouraging women to get the facts about heart disease.

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VA offers tips for American Heart Month

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Women are typically afflicted by "broken hearts" in February on Valentine's Day, so maybe it's appropriate that it's also American Heart Month. But a cardiologist from Pennsylvania's Geisinger Health System warns that women are increasingly suffering real broken hearts all year round.

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The old saying "three out of five ain't bad" might be true in sports. But when it comes to your heart, three out of five can definitely be bad. More doctors now agree that there are five basic factors that can lead to heart disease and diabetes "“ and that anyone with at least three of these characteristics is at especially high risk.

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Normal blood pressure now doesn't mean you won't have a problem later. In fact, even a healthy person with a normal blood pressure at age 55 has a 90 percent lifetime risk of developing hypertension. So anything you can do to control blood pressure and prevent hypertension is to your advantage.

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Full-night sleep studies and echocardiography may need to be incorporated into routine assessments of patients with difficult-to-treat high blood pressure, suggests UAB researcher Monique Pratt-Ubunama, M.D.