Feature Channels: Cardiovascular Health

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Among patients with atrial fibrillation who filled prescriptions for the anticoagulant dabigatran at Veterans Health Administration sites, there was variability in patient medication adherence across sites, with appropriate patient selection and pharmacist-led monitoring associated with greater adherence to the medication, according to a study in the April 14 issue of JAMA.

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In a comparison of mechanical prosthetic vs bioprosthetic mitral valves among patients 50 to 69 years of age undergoing mitral valve replacement, there was no significant difference in survival at 15 years, although there were differences in risk of reoperation, bleeding and stroke, according to a study in the April 14 issue of JAMA.

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A natural compound from magnolia bark can protect the heart from hypertrophy by activating SIRT3, a protein associated with delayed aging, stress resistance and metabolic regulation. Injected honokiol protected stressed mice, preventing excess growth of cardiac muscle cells and fibrosis.

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Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: Astronomy, Cardiology, Nephrology, Neurology, Neutrinos, oil spills, Toxicology, Cancer, and Nutrition

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Professor Jonathan Stamler’s latest findings regarding nitric oxide have the potential to reshape fundamentally the way we think about the respiratory system – and offer new avenues to save lives. His findings were recently published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Damage to heart muscle from insufficient blood supply during cardiac arrest and reperfusion injury after blood flow is restored can be reduced by nearly 90 percent if selenide, a form of the essential nutrient selenium, is administered intravenously in the wake of the attack, according to a new preclinical study by Mark Roth, Ph.D., and colleagues at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

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Recognizing and giving thanks for the positive aspects of life can result in improved mental, and ultimately physical, health in patients with asymptomatic heart failure, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

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Pesticide exposure, not obesity alone, can contribute to increased cardiovascular disease risk and inflammation in premenopausal women, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

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Vascular surgeons at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, NJ, are offering a new type of minimally invasive procedure for patients with a complex form of abdominal aortic aneurysm.

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EMBARGOED HEART RESEARCH: Middle-aged athletes are at low risk for having a sudden cardiac arrest while playing sports, and those who do have a greater chance of surviving the usually-fatal condition, shows a new Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute study.

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What happens in the moments just before death is widely believed to be a slowdown of the body’s systems as the heart stops beating and blood flow ends. But there's a brainstorm happening, strongly synchronized with heart rhythm. Blocking this brain outflow may change the odds of survival for those who suffer cardiac arrest.

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Pomegranates and dates are delicious, increasingly trendy, and healthy to boot. As it turns out, when consumed together they are a winning combination in the war against heart disease.

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Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: neurology, concussions, STEM jobs, Medical licensing, gun safety and youth, research ethics, and sleep apnea and blood pressure.

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The use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy can help people who have both obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and hypertension lower their blood pressure, which in turn could possibly reduce their risk of suffering a deadly heart attack or stroke in the future. However, the data is unclear on the impact of CPAP use in millions of OSA-sufferers who have a resistant form of hypertension that doesn’t significantly improve despite multi-drug therapy. A global research team recently looked at a set of pooled data and determined that untreated OSA may be one reason why resistant hypertension doesn’t respond to traditional therapy, and that CPAP use may yield even greater blood pressure reductions in this difficult to treat population than expected.

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In people, a baby’s risk of congenital heart defects is associated with the age of the mother. Risk goes up with increasing age. Newborn mice predisposed to heart defects because of genetic mutations show the same age association. A new study demonstrates that older mouse mothers reduce this risk for their offspring to that of younger mouse mothers through exercise alone, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

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Coronary heart disease and stroke, two of the leading causes of death in the United States, are diseases associated with heightened platelet reactivity. A new study in humans suggests an underlying reason for the variability in the risk of clotting is due to a genetic variation in a receptor on the surface of the platelet.

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Cholesterol-lowering statins have transformed the treatment of heart disease. But while the decision to use the drugs in patients with a history of heart attacks and strokes is mostly clear-cut, that choice can be a far trickier proposition for the tens of millions of Americans with high cholesterol but no overt disease.

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An estimated eight million adults in the U.S. suffer from binge eating disorder. Now, researchers have shown that compulsive binging on foods that are high in fat and sugar can trigger specific molecular changes that can lead to high blood pressure (hypertension). While others have studied the effects of binge eating on the brain, this study is the first to look at its molecular effects on the expression of certain proteins in the body.

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A study of peanut consumption showed that including them as a part of a high fat meal improved the post-meal triglyceride response and preserved endothelial function.

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Researchers have developed the first global model for predicting cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. The model—developed by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Imperial College London, and colleagues—will be of particular help to public health professionals, clinicians, and patients in developing countries for prevention of CVD.

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Adding two non-invasive imaging tests to traditional cardiovascular disease risk factor assessment more precisely predicts a healthy patient’s future risk of heart attack, stroke, or premature death, according to a study led by Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published in the March 24 edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC).

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It’s been nearly a decade since Gheorghe Sandru received the heart implant that changed his life. Sandru, 85, was the first patient enrolled in a Cedars-Sinai clinical trial for a tiny implant known as the WATCHMAN Device. It reduces the risk of deadly strokes in patients with erratic heartbeats by closing a pouch in the heart where blood pools, preventing clots from traveling out of the heart and into the body. Now it’s his wife’s turn.

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Women who give birth to four or more children are more likely to have cardiovascular changes that can be early indicators of heart disease than women who have fewer children, new research by UT Southwestern Medical Center cardiologists finds.

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A Mayo Clinic study has identified a familial association in spontaneous coronary artery dissection, a type of heart attack that most commonly affects younger women, suggesting a genetic predisposition to the condition, researchers say. The results are published in the March 23 issue of JAMA Internal Medicine.

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Working with lab animals and human heart cells, scientists from Johns Hopkins and other institutions have identified what they describe as “the long-sought culprit” in the mystery behind a cell-signaling breakdown that triggers heart failure.

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The heart tissue of mammals has limited capacity to regenerate after an injury such as a heart attack, in part due to the inability to reactivate a cardiac muscle cell and proliferation program. A team has now shown that a subset of microRNAs is important for cardiomyocyte cell proliferation during development and is sufficient to induce proliferation in cardiomyocytes in the adult heart.

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A new study has found that a mobile app conceived at MedStar Heart & Vascular Institute at MedStar Washington Hospital Center is allowing heart attack patients to be treated more quickly – some an average of 30 percent faster -- reducing potential heart damage.

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An additional 18 months of dual antiplatelet therapy among patients who received a bare metal coronary stent did not result in significant differences in rates of stent thrombosis (formation of a blood clot), major adverse cardiac and cerebrovascular events, or moderate or severe bleeding, compared to patients who received placebo, according to a study in the March 17 issue of JAMA. The authors note that limitations in sample size may make definitive conclusions regarding these findings difficult.

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Paper in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology shows glucose-lowering therapies pose increased cardiac risk

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Data from a meta-analysis published today in The Lancet found that extended duration dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) after drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation was associated with significantly higher rates of mortality compared to shorter DAPT.

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Data from the BRIGHT trial published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association demonstrated that bivalirudin was superior to both heparin monotherapy and heparin plus tirofiban for patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Findings were first reported at last year’s Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT), the annual scientific symposium of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF).

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Results of a clinical trial announced today at the American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Session show a new type of therapy is safe and effective for symptomatic advanced heart failure patients who are already receiving optimum drug and device therapy. The study also published in JACC Heart Failure.

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Routine strategy of blood clot removal during treatment for heart attacks not beneficial and associated with an increased risk of stroke.

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Newer drug-coated stents that keep arteries open have similar long-term rates of death compared with traditional bypass surgery for patients with more than one diseased coronary artery.

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New heart imaging technology to diagnose coronary heart disease and other heart disorders is significantly more accurate, less expensive and safer than traditional methods, according to a new study by researchers from the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City.

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A simple and inexpensive screening test can show which diabetic patients face an increased risk of heart disease, which can help them get the care they need, faster — and proactively reduce their risk of heart disease, according to a new study by researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City.

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There is still no evidence of genetic difference between blacks and whites to account for the health disparities in cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to a new study by McGill University researchers. Published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, the researchers suggest that after a decade of genetic studies, factors such as lifestyle, education and socio-economics - not genetics - are more promising avenues to understanding racial health disparities.

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A new test that rules out heart attacks in patients could reduce hospital admissions by as much as 40%, for patients with chest pain, according to research published by Bournemouth University (BU).

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Most physicians are aware of the importance of lifestyle factors in preventing cardiovascular disease (CVD) -- and believe diet is as important as statin therapy and exercise, according to a new survey from NYU Langone Medical Center.

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Air pollution has been linked to a dangerous narrowing of neck arteries that occurs prior to strokes, according to researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center.

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In a study that included more than 20,000 adults in China with high blood pressure but without a history of stroke or heart attack, the combined use of the hypertension medication enalapril and folic acid, compared with enalapril alone, significantly reduced the risk of first stroke, according to a study appearing in JAMA. The study is being released to coincide with its presentation at the American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Session.

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Patients with chest pain have similar rates of heart attacks and other major cardiac events within two years whether they were evaluated with a new type of CT scan or the traditional stress test, according to results presented today by Duke Medicine researchers at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology.

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People exposed to prolonged periods of shortened sleep have significant increases in blood pressure during nighttime hours, Mayo Clinic researchers report in a small study of eight participants.

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Healthy young adults who don’t consume caffeine regularly experienced greater rise in resting blood pressure after consumption of a commercially available energy drink — compared to a placebo drink — thus raising the concern that energy drinks may increase the risk of cardiac events, Mayo Clinic researchers found.

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The newest guidelines for the use of cholesterol-lowering statins in people at risk of heart disease may be too generic, excluding middle-aged adults who could benefit from the drugs, and over-prescribing in older adults, according to a new study from the Duke Clinical Research Institute.

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A review paper co-authored by two faculty members at the University of Delaware and two physicians at Christiana Care Health System provides evidence that even in the absence of an increase in blood pressure, excess dietary sodium can adversely affect target organs, including the blood vessels, heart, kidneys and brain.

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A team of scientists led by Johns Hopkins cardiologist and biomedical engineer Hiroshi Ashikaga, M.D., Ph.D., has developed a mathematical model to measure and digitally map the beat-sustaining electrical flow between heart cells.

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In an analysis of outcomes of about 12,000 patients who underwent transcatheter aortic valve replacement, death rate after one year was nearly one in four; of those alive at 12 months, almost half had not been rehospitalized and approximately 25 percent had only one hospitalization, according to a study in the March 10 issue of JAMA.

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Study results of one-year data for more than 12,000 patients who had transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in the United States show an overall one-year death rate of 23.7 percent and a stroke rate of 4.1 percent, according to a study published in the March 10 issue of JAMA.