Feature Channels: Cardiovascular Health

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Automatic blood pressure devices are often used to assess blood pressure levels at home and in the clinic. But these devices are prone to significant errors, sometimes leading to the prescription of blood pressure-lowering medications to patients who don’t actually need them. Israeli researchers have developed a method to more accurately measure systolic blood pressure. They will present their findings at the Cardiovascular Aging: New Frontiers and Old Friends conference in Westminster, Colo.

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Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the U.S. and growing older is the greatest—and most inevitable—risk factor for it. So what, if anything, can we do to keep our hearts and arteries as healthy as possible for as long as possible? Keynote speaker Douglas Seals, PhD, of the University of Colorado Boulder, will lay the groundwork of what we know and the promising research that could combat cardiovascular aging in his presentation “Strategies for Optimal Cardiovascular Aging.” Seals will present his lecture at the Cardiovascular Aging: New Frontiers and Old Friends conference in Westminster, Colo.

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• Investigators observed a step-wise increase in the risk of atrial fibrillation with decreasing kidney function. Compared with patients without kidney disease, those with severe kidney disease had a two-fold higher risk for developing atrial fibrillation. • This link held even after accounting for a range of possible contributors, including measures of cardiovascular health, and it was consistent across subgroups of participants.

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Vanderbilt University Medical Center is one of nine centers across the United States to participate in the EXPAND Heart Pivotal Trial, which has the potential to change the way donor hearts are preserved and transported to recipients.

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A team of researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) at Lake Nona, Fla. and Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. have been awarded a three-year National Institutes of Health(NIH) grant which aims to identify molecules that could become new medicines to inhibit myocardial fibrosis. Fibrosis is a major contributor to heart failure, for which there is no known cure.

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Patients without calcium buildup in the coronary arteries had significantly lower risk of future heart attack or stroke despite other high risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, or bad cholesterol levels, new research from UT Southwestern cardiologists shows.

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Mayo Clinic was again named the best hospital in the country in U.S. News & World Report’s annual list of top hospitals published on the U.S. News & World Report website today.

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Common anti-allergy medicines could prove to be an effective treatment for potentially fatal blood clots in the legs, according to new research by the University of Birmingham.

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Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, Bayshore Medical Center in Holmdel and Ocean Medical Center in Brick have received the American College of Cardiology's NCDR ACTION Registry - Get with the Guidelines Platinum Achievement Award for outstanding care for cardiac patients.

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By Kerry Bennett Office of the Vice President for ResearchHigh rates of overweight and obesity—as well as related diseases such as Type 2 diabetes—are serious public health concerns for the Navajo Nation. With more than 300,000 enrolled members in 110 chapters spread across 27,000 square miles in northeastern Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, it is one of the largest American Indian tribes in the U.

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A woman’s race and where on her body she packs on pounds at midlife could give her doctor valuable clues to her likelihood of having greater volumes of heart fat, a potential risk factor for heart disease, according to new research led by the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

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1) Diabetes complications are a risk factor for repeat hospitalizations, study shows; 2) Mayo Clinic School of Medicine gives medical education a new twist; 3) Mayo Foundation Journalist Residency: Behind the Scenes in Surgery, Oct. 1-5

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Heart failure can quickly develop or become worse during a hospital stay, even when it isn’t the primary cause for admission. Hospitals and clinicians must be diligent to identify patients at risk for secondary heart failure as they aim to improve outcomes, contain costs and prevent readmissions, according to an article in Critical Care Nurse.

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A new study published in the HSS Journal by HSS anesthesiologist Michael K. Urban, MD, PhD, sheds light on reducing cardiac complications in orthopedic surgery.

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A study by researchers at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center and published in JACC: Heart Failure, a journal of the American College of Cardiology Foundation, allays concerns among cardiologists that aspirin could increase the risk of hospitalization and death related to heart failure for patients with heart failure who take one of the first-line therapies: angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs).

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A nationally recognized cardiothoracic surgeon and researcher, Vinod Thourani, MD, will join MedStar Heart & Vascular Institute as the chairman of Cardiac Surgery, effective August 14. Dr. Thourani brings with him extensive expertise in structural heart disease and valve surgery.

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Press can register here to livestream this special session through Newswise Live on Monday, July 31 at 7:30 PM EDT

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Dr. Virendra Patel has been named chief of the Division of Vascular Surgery and Endovascular Interventions and co-director of the Aortic Program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and an associate professor of surgery at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), effective July 1.

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People who are diagnosed with coronary artery disease and then develop depression face a risk of death that’s twice as high as heart patients without depression, according to a major new study by researchers at Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City.

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UCLA-led research finds that the way estrogen therapy for menopause is delivered doesn’t affect risk or benefit. What DOES make a difference with the commonly used conjugated equine estrogen, plus progestogen, is dosage.