News Tips for Tuesday, Nov. 11
>From the American Heart Association's 70th Scientific Sessions Nov. 9-12, 1997, Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Florida
1:30-3:15 -- #2735 -- If reasons that a Mediterranean diet is healthy are all Greek to you, take heart. California researchers have begun to fathom how olive oil, monounsaturated fat, may help protect arteries. They compared LDL from 18 residents of Greece with LDL from 18 Americans. Greek residents' LDL contains 20 percent more of a fatty acid, oleate, which earlier tests had shown may reduce inflammatory tendencies in "oxidized" LDL, hyperactive particles that tend to pile up in artery walls. Greeks' blood also had less linoleate, a monounsaturated fatty acid that may stimulate the inflammatory process. Thus, researchers say olive oil may make LDL less "toxic." Sotirios Tsimikas, University of California, San Diego: 619-534-4402. See #4115 (poster, 1:30-3:15 p.m.) for report that a diet rich in peanuts, another oleate-laden food and cousin of the soybean, is as effective as the National Cholesterol Education Program diet in lowering LDL and total cholesterol while hav! ing less adverse impact on HDL. David M. Colquhoun, Wesley Medical Center, Brisbane, Australia: 61-7-387-01490. And #3685 (poster, 10:30-12 noon Wednesday) for study showing that higher dietary levels of monounsaturated fats predict lower incidence of heart disease. Ahmad Farshid, Prince Henry Hospital, Sydney, Australia: 61-2-966-13369
3:15-5 p.m. -- #2953 (poster)-- The cutting edge of technology? Doctors in Montreal report successful testing of a "cutting balloon" -- a hybrid device that's a cut above the usual angioplasty balloon because tiny, razor-sharp blades are attached to its skin. The blades cut through obstructions (plaque) lining the vessel, the balloon inflates, the opening widens and blood flow increases. In a study that's part of a larger global trial, 427 patients were treated with either regular angioplasty or the cutting balloon, with similar benefits. The cutting balloon may be especially adept at unblocking smaller vessels, the scientists say. Raoul Bonan, Montreal Heart Institute, Montreal: 514-376-3330. See posters #2950 and #2951 for other "cutting balloon" reports by Bonan and colleagues; #2954 for report on a "nipple catheter" to deliver blood-thinning drugs inside an artery after angioplasty, by Edoardo Camenzind, Erasmus Univ., Rotterdam, Netherlands: 31-10-463-5258; and #2989!
on the use of ultrasound energy to force beneficial medicine into the vessel wall, by Katsuro Tachibana, Fukuoka Univ. School of Medicine, Japan: 81-92-741-3278.
3:15-5 p.m. -- #2920 (poster) - Genetically engineered growth hormone helps people with heart failure due to certain types of cardiomyopathy, a disease that enlarges and weakens the heart. Venezuelan researchers found "clear improvement" in the size of the heart's main pumping chamber, the left ventricle, and in a basic measure of its pumping efficiency. Thus, adding growth hormone to a medical treatment that also includes ACE inhibitors "could be of benefit" for patients with severe heart failure. Nusen Beer, Hospital De Clinicas Caracas, Caracas,Venezuela: 58-2-576-2831. See #2529 (2:30 p.m.) for a report on the effectiveness of a heart failure-fighting drug called irbesartan in achieving improved heart function and preventing further worsening of the disease. Edward P. Havranek, Denver Health Medical Center: 303-436-5499.
4 p.m. -- #2678 -- A high-fat diet may not be so bad -- if it's the right kind of fat. Dallas researchers placed a dozen older men with high triglycerides, the most common fat in the blood, on two experimental diets -- one having 20 percent total fat; the other, 40 percent. The "high-fat" diet reduced triglycerides by 26 percent and non-HDL cholesterol by 10%. Here's the kicker -- while higher in total fat, the 40 percent-fat diet had more of monounsaturated and poly-unsaturated fats but no more saturated fat, the kind that raises heart disease risk. Nilo B. Cater, Univ. of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas: 214-648-9015.
5 p.m. -- #2590 -- An anti-arrhythmic drug, amiodarone, reduces the incidence of sudden death in patients at high risk because of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle. During an average three-year follow-up of 474 such patients, 38 died, 19 of them suddenly. But none of the 81 patients taking the drug died suddenly. Among patients with two or more risk factors (e.g., rapid heartbeat, family history), sudden death risk was significantly higher -- but in those same patients amiodarone lowered that risk. Perry Mark Elliott, St. George's Hospital Medical School, London: 44-181-6820944.
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