Feature Channels: Cardiovascular Health

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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A new high-tech catheter device can improve outcomes of patients treated for atrial fibrillation, the most common irregular heartbeat.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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A major study has found that giving stroke patients medications to lower their blood pressure right after a stroke does not reduce death or major disability. The study is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Vanderbilt researchers report that they have taken an important step toward the goal of growing replacement heart valves from a patient’s own cells by determining that the mechanical forces generated by the rhythmic expansion and contraction of cardiac muscle cells play an active role in the initial stage of heart valve formation.

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A new study shows that a blood test commonly used to determine whether heart transplant recipients are rejecting their new organ can also predict potential rejection-related problems in the future – months before such an event may occur.

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14-year-old teenager receives S-ICD, which sits just below the skin, and leaves the heart and blood vessels untouched while providing the same protection as traditional ICDs.

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Dr. David Platt, scientific pioneer, author and expert, can discuss the study “Added Sugar Intake and Cardiovascular Diseases Mortality Among US Adults” published in JAMA, and can provide insightful information on how sugar enters the body from carbohydrates, and tips for fighting rises in blood sugar which is a factor that can lead to many chronic conditions.

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Without administering a simple blood test in the first few days after surgery, 85 percent of the heart attacks or injuries patients suffer could be missed, according to a study in the March issue of Anesthesiology. Globally, more than 8 million adults have heart attacks or injuries after surgery every year, and 10 percent of those patients die within 30 days.

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Professors at FAU's Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine discuss the clinical and public health challenges to increase the use of statins in the treatment and prevention of heart attacks and strokes. Last November, the American Heart Association, in collaboration with the American College of Cardiology and the U.S. National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, presented and published its new guidelines for the use of statins in the treatment and prevention of heart attacks and strokes.

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In a Perspective column today in the New England Journal of Medicine, Penn Medicine cardiologist and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar Lisa Rosenbaum, MD, discusses barriers to helping women understand their heart health risks.

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In the first study of its kind, a consortium led by UCLA physicians found that giving stroke patients intravenous magnesium within an hour of symptom onset does not improve stroke outcomes, according to research presented today at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference.

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If you see a teen or adult suddenly collapse, and they are unconscious, hands-only CPR can save his/her life.

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UAB will contribute newsworthy presentations, and it has a number of experts available to weigh in on the news coming out of the conference.

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African-Americans were 39 times more likely to die of a stroke if they were exposed to an infection.

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New genetic evidence strengthens the case that one well-known type of cholesterol is a likely suspect in causing heart disease, but also casts further doubt on the causal role played by another type. The findings may guide the search for improved treatments.

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Despite the fact that heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the U.S., about three-quarters (74 percent) of Americans do not fear dying from it, according to a recent survey from Cleveland Clinic.

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This February during American Heart Month, Vivek Reddy, MD, of Mount Sinai Heart at The Mount Sinai Hospital implanted the United States’ first miniature-sized, leadless cardiac pacemaker directly inside a patient’s heart without surgery.

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Saint Louis University pediatric cardiologist says heart health should be lifelong pursuit

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A University of Utah-led study for treatment of patients with atrial fibrillation (A-fib) provides strong clinical evidence for the use of 3-D MRI to individualize disease management and improve outcomes.

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A new type of contrast MRI can predict which heart patients with atrial fibrillation are most likely to benefit from a treatment called catheter ablation, according to a landmark multi-center study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Clinicians and patients should use shared decision-making to select individualized treatments based on the new guidelines to prevent cardiovascular disease, according to a commentary by three Mayo Clinic physicians published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Absorb™ Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold will be studied

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Pass codes, phone numbers and addresses. We all have a lot of numbers in our heads, but heart experts at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center say there are 5 more you need to know to help keep your heart healthy.

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Mount Sinai researchers generated their engineered cardiac tissue from human embryonic stem cells with the resulting muscle having remarkable similarities to native heart muscle, including the ability to beat and contract like the human heart. This research breakthrough study was highlighted as the cover story of the February 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal.

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A strong sensation of pressure—what some have described as an elephant sitting on one’s chest—can be one of the red flags that someone is experiencing a heart attack and should seek immediate medical assistance. But if you are a woman, waiting to feel this type of pain may be a mistake. Fifty percent of the time a woman has a heart attack, there will be no chest pain involved, explains Dr. Liliana Cohen, a board-certified cardiologist with Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical Group.

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Heart transplantation continues to be the “gold standard” treatment for end-stage heart failure, and a large number of patients now live 20 years or more after surgery

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Detailed prediction models that project long-term patient mortality following PCI and CABG surgery can be useful for the heart team when determining the best treatment strategy for individual patients

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February is American Heart Month. “Top 10 Things Women Need to Do to Protect their Hearts,” from cardiovascular disease by leading female cardiovascular experts of Mount Sinai Heart at The Mount Sinai Hospital.

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Orlando Health Heart Institute offers innovative technology to remove potentially deadly, large clots.

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A new device tested first at the University of Michigan may provide a minimally invasive option for the elderly who are facing life-threatening thoracic aneurysms.