Feature Channels: Cardiovascular Health

• share
• favorite_border

The Lariat device is associated with a significant incidence of death and urgent cardiac surgery during its frequent off-label use to prevent stroke in patients with the irregular heartbeat known as atrial fibrillation. Following a systematic review of case reports and an FDA safety database, researchers are calling for formal controlled investigations into the safety and efficacy of off-label use of the Lariat device, which has never been approved for treatment of this condition.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Frailty among older people with cardiovascular disease appears to be more predictive than age for gauging their risk of heart attack, stroke and death, according to an international study that included researchers at Duke Medicine.

• share
• favorite_border

In the midst of the growing and often conflicting data around the benefits of statins, researchers are developing gene-based resources to help improve statin efficacy and cost-effectiveness and to reduce the incidence of adverse effects – some of which can be fatal.

• share
• favorite_border

Oxidative stress has been long known to fuel disease, but how exactly it damages various organs has been challenging to sort out. Now scientists from Johns Hopkins say research in mice reveals why oxidation comes to be so corrosive to heart muscle.

• share
• favorite_border

A national survey released today by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center shows that most women don’t know the risks or symptoms females face when it comes to having a stroke. The survey of 1,000 women was released in time for Stroke Awareness Month in May.

• share
• favorite_border

Review concludes that intramuscular injection of testerosterone replacement therapy confers greater health benefits and lower cardiovascular risks than transdermal administration by skin patch or gel.

• share
• favorite_border

Mice that are given the lipid Resolvin D1 after experimental heart attacks have substantially reduced amounts of inflammation and heart failure.

• share
• favorite_border

Refining the results of a 2013 study, researchers have found that atrial fibrillation, or irregular heartbeat, is associated with only one type of heart attack – the more common of the two types.

• share
• favorite_border

Stroke is a frequent and dreaded complication of atrial fibrillation. But predicting which of the estimated six million Americans with a-fib are at highest risk has long challenged physicians weighing stroke risk against the serious side effects posed by lifelong therapy with warfarin and other blood thinners.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers performing sophisticated motion studies of heart MRI scans have found that specific altered function in the left atrium of the heart may signal stroke risk in those with atrial fibrillation and, possibly, those without it.

• share
• favorite_border

Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: exercise and obesity, Focused Ultrasound to treat uterine fibroids, neurology, diet supplements and cancer (day 4 in top 10), genetics, geology, skin cancer, sleep and Alzheimer's, and water conservation.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers from Drexel University demonstrate that ultrasound can increase the rate at which heart cells beat and describe the settings that can do so most effectively.

• share
• favorite_border

Stroke can happen to anyone at any age.

• share
• favorite_border

Every year, more than 120 million prescriptions are written worldwide for thiazide drugs, a group of salt-lowering medicines used to treat high blood pressure. These drugs are often very effective. But in some patients, they don't work. The reasons for this have remained a mystery. Now, a new study by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) has revealed a key mechanism for this failure.

• share
• favorite_border

Use of either proximal embolic protection devices (P-EPDs) or distal filter embolic protection devices (F-EPDs) during elective carotid artery stenting results in low rates of in-hospital stroke and death, according to a new study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The study, published in JACC: Cardiovascular Interventions, found that although P-EPDs have been theorized to be more effective than F-EPDs at preventing stroke during carotid artery stenting, this first comparative effectiveness study revealed no statistically significant difference between the two devices.

• share
• favorite_border

Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: neurology, environment, crowdfunding, engineering, smoking, pharmaceuticals, medical research, cardiology and diabetes

• share
• favorite_border

Among dialysis patients, genetically related family members have about a 70% increased risk of cardiac arrest compared with unrelated dialysis patients. Spouses on dialysis do not have an increased risk.

• share
• favorite_border

An international team of scientists, led by researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, have found genetic overlap between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and two significant cardiovascular disease risk factors: high levels of inflammatory C-reactive protein (CRP) and plasma lipids or fats. The findings suggest the two cardiovascular phenotypes play a role in AD risk and perhaps offer a new avenue for potentially delaying disease progression.

• share
• favorite_border

Cardiovascular diseases are a major cause of death worldwide, in part because heart cells don’t renew – except during a very small window early in life. In a breakthrough, a team of researchers that included the Weizmann Institute, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, and the University of South Wales gets mouse heart cells to take a step backwards… and be renewed.

• share
• favorite_border

Trending news releases with the most views in a single day. Topics include: robotics, nicotine and alcohol, stem cells, vision, cancer, pregnancy, racial disparities in smoking risk, and herbal therapy for cardiac hypertrophy

• share
• favorite_border

Collaboration Aims to Expand Treatment Options and Improve Outcomes for Patients

• share
• favorite_border

Divorced women suffer heart attacks at higher rates than women who are continuously married, a new study from Duke Medicine has found. A woman who has been through two or more divorces is nearly twice as likely to have a heart attack when compared to their stably-married female peers, according to the findings.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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).

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.

• share
• favorite_border

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.