Feature Channels: Cardiovascular Health

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A new study highlights the importance of exercise and physical fitness among people with stable coronary artery disease. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Henry Ford Hospital found that higher levels of physical fitness lower the risk of having heart attacks and increase survival in those with coronary artery disease, whether or not they have had a procedure to open up their blocked arteries.

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Despite nearly universal awareness of report cards on risk-adjusted mortality rates of individual cardiac surgeons, cardiologists in New York State do not use these reports when making patient referral decisions.

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The reality of existing insurance coverage precludes effective implementation of four newly released cardiovascular guidelines from the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology, according to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The Academy supports the new guidelines and urges public and private insurance carriers to follow the recommendations so that Americans will have access to health care they deserve.

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New cholesterol guidelines for identifying adults at risk for heart disease represent the biggest change in such expert advice in more than 25 years, and could dramatically affect how patients are treated.

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Researchers at the Cardiovascular Research Center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have successfully tested a powerful gene therapy, delivered directly into the heart, to reverse heart failure in large animal models.

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UCLA researchers report that tiny amounts of a specific type of lipid in the small intestine may play a greater role than previously thought in generating the high cholesterol levels and inflammation that lead to clogged arteries. The team also found they could reduce the negative effects of these lipids in mice by feeding the animals a new genetically engineered tomato being developed at UCLA that is designed to mimic HDL (“good”) cholesterol. The study, in the December issue of the Journal of Lipid Research with an accompanying editorial, focused on a group of lipids found in the small intestine called unsaturated lysophosphatidic acids (LPAs).

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A minimally invasive procedure is the first effective treatment for patients who are high risk for standard open heart surgery for a leaking heart valve, a study led by a University of Virginia School of Medicine researcher has found.

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New research from the Cleveland Clinic shows most patients with diabetes and obesity who undergo gastric bypass not only experience remission of their diabetes and lose significant weight, but they also reduce their risk of having a heart attack by 40 percent and their risk for suffering a stroke by 42 percent, over a 10-year time horizon.

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Experts from Houston Methodist Hospital address the recent FDA proposal to eliminate trans fat from the food supply.

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Men taking testosterone therapy had a 29 percent greater risk of death, heart attack and stroke according to a study of a "real world" population of men. An accompanying editorial in JAMA by an endocrinologist with the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania notes that the mounting evidence of a signal of cardiovascular risk warrants cautious testosterone prescribing and additional investigation.

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Doctors have known for years that atrial fibrillation (AF), or irregular heartbeat, increases the risk for stroke, but now researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have shown that it also increases the risk for heart attack. In fact, for women and African Americans, it more than doubles the risk.

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Current medical guidelines use a one-size-fits-all treatment approach that leads to some patients being on too many medications and others being on too little.

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A multi-center team led by James Langabeer II, Ph.D., of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) has published a first-of-its-kind study in the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA) that examines unequal growth in percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) centers relative to population and heart attack prevalence across the United States.

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Although an irregular heartbeat is a common malady in the United States, affecting an estimated 5 million people, the treatments for it are limited in scope and effectiveness. Now, Igor Efimov, PhD, at Washington University in St. Louis, is studying a new potential treatment that may be much more effective and less painful for patients.

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Rheumatoid arthritis patients who use tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (called Anti-TNFs) to control their disease-related inflammation also have a decreased risk for heart attacks, according to research findings presented this week at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Meeting in San Diego.

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Vanderbilt University Medical Center has joined a national network funded by the National Institutes of Health to streamline multi-site clinical trials focused on key interventions in stroke prevention, treatment and recovery. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Stroke Trials Network will include up to 25 academic medical centers and aims to increase efficiency and resource sharing within cerebrovascular clinical research.

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New research has shown that chest compressions only can be an effective method of delivering CPR to people in need. Find out how one man was able to save his father after to a heart attack. To learn more, visit www.VanderbiltHeart.com

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There is an association between the influenza virus and cardiovascular events like heart disease and stroke; those with cardiovascular disease should protect themselves against the flu.

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The flu vaccine may not only ward off serious complications from influenza, it may also reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke by more than 50 per cent among those who have had a heart attack, according to new research led by Dr. Jacob Udell, a cardiologist at Women’s College Hospital and clinician-scientist at the University of Toronto.

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The survival rate for individuals who experience a sudden cardiac arrest outside of a hospital is a mere five percent. Time is crucial. Chances of survival drop by 10 percent for every minute that passes without someone performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or using an automated external defibrillator (AED).

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The incidence of chronic pain following cardiac surgery can be reduced in patients when the drug pregabalin is used before surgery and for 14 days post-surgery, according to a study presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY™ 2013 annual meeting. The study also found that patients at risk of developing long-term post-operative persistent pain can be predicted by conducting pain sensitivity tests at the time of surgery.

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Long-term memory loss, difficulty understanding verbal or written communication or impaired ability to pay attention may still occur five years after heart surgery if a patient has a certain gene variation, according to a study presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY™ 2013 annual meeting. This gene was found to be related to a decline in cognitive capabilities compared to those who do not have the variation.

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Mitochondria are the power plants of cells, manufacturing fuel so a cell can perform its many tasks. These cellular power plants also are well known for their role in cell suicide. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Padua-Dulbecco Telethon Institute in Italy have shown that mitochondria remarkably also orchestrate events that determine a cell’s future, at least in the embryonic mouse heart. The new study identifies new potential genetic culprits in the origins of some congenital heart defects.

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A study led by researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has found that the association between body fat and mortality due to cardiovascular disease differs between south and east Asians, a finding that has important implications for global health recommendations. Cardiovascular disease, a condition in which arteries thicken and restrict blood flow, kills more than 17 million people annually, making it the leading cause of death worldwide.

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Early treatment of heart attack patients with an inexpensive beta-blocker drug called metoprolol, while in transit to the hospital, can significantly reduce damage to the heart during a myocardial infarction, according to clinical trial study results published Oct. 1 in the journal Circulation.

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Just 21 days of following a low-sodium DASH diet lowered blood pressure and improved heart function for older adults living with a common type of heart failure.

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Men who have low testosterone levels may have a slightly elevated risk of developing or dying from heart disease, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

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University at Buffalo translational researchers are developing a richer understanding of atherosclerosis in humans, revealing a key role for stem cells that promote inflammation.

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Post-menopausal women whose doctors prescribe hormone replacement therapy for severe hot flashes and other menopause symptoms may want to consider taking low doses of Food and Drug Administration-approved bioidentical forms of estrogen or getting their hormones via a transdermal patch. A new observational study shows bioidentical hormones in transdermal patches may be associated with a lower risk of heart attack and FDA-approved products -- not compounded hormones -- may be associated with a slightly lower risk of stroke compared to synthetic hormones in pill form.

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Case Western Reserve University is part of a landmark study that has discovered four novel gene variations associated with blood pressure.

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Heart attack deaths have remained the same, even as hospital teams have gotten faster at treating heart attack patients with emergency angioplasty, according to a study in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine.

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A global study has found that many patients don’t know they have hypertension and, even if they do, too few are receiving adequate drug therapy for their hypertension.

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A new world-wide pooled analysis, presented by researchers from The Mount Sinai Medical Center at the ESC Congress 2013 in Amsterdam, organized by the European Society of Cardiology, provides strong evidence that stents work well in women. Their examination of 26 randomized stent studies that enrolled 11,557 women concluded that women benefit just as much from stents as men do.

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Over 200 patients who completed the Singapore Heart Foundation’s Heart Wellness Programme demonstrated improvements in cardiac risk factors.

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The international research team found risk factors for cardiovascular disease was lowest in low income countries, intermediate in middle income countries and highest in high income countries. However, the incidence of serious cardiovascular disease such as heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and deaths followed the opposite pattern: highest in the low income countries, intermediate in middle income countries and lowest in high income countries. Hospitalizations for less severe cardiovascular diseases were highest in the high income countries.

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Lead study investigators from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai presented their Patterns of Non-Adherence to Anti-Platelet Regimens in Stented Patients (PARIS) study findings at the ESC Congress 2013 in Amsterdam organized by the European Society of Cardiology. Their new study results show among patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with stents, the risk of cardiovascular complications after stopping dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) is highly variable depending on the context, and some patients experience no complications at all.

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A new study — the first to apply a new screening technique to human platelets — netted a potential drug target for preventing dangerous blood clots in high-risk people.

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Non-invasive treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm clinical trial (N-TA^3CT) investigates what could be the first medical therapy available in the high-stakes course of treating aortic aneurysms.

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When a beating heart slips into an irregular, rhythm, the treatment is electric current from a pacemaker or defibrillator. But the electricity itself can cause pain, tissue damage and other side-effects. Now, researchers want to replace jolts with a gentler remedy: light.

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Two treatments that slow the development of diabetes also may protect people from heart disease, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

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Researchers have published the benefits of statins in the prevention of heart attacks and strokes in subjects previously thought at too low a risk to be treated. They present new clinical and public health challenges with respect to the use of statins in primary prevention of heart attacks and strokes in apparently healthy subjects at low risk.

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Evidence from people with heart disease strongly supports the existence of the molecular link first discovered in laboratory mice between the body’s natural circadian rhythms and cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac death — the No. 1 cause of death in heart attacks, a scientist said here today at the 246th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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Electronic sutures that monitor surgical incisions for healing and infection. Electronic films that cling to the heart, monitoring the heartbeat and alerting the patient and cardiologist when medical attention is needed. Flexible plastic electronic appliques that stick to the skin like temporary tattoos and monitor hydration in athletes. Those and other futuristic advances are on the agenda here today at a symposium during the 246th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

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Implementation of a large-scale hypertension program that included evidence-based guidelines and development and sharing of performance metrics was associated with a near-doubling of hypertension control between 2001 and 2009, compared to only modest improvements in state and national control rates, according to a study in the August 21 issue of JAMA.

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Older heart patients present unique challenges for determining the optimal dosages of medications, so a new study from researchers at Duke Medicine offers some rare clarity about the use of drugs that are used to treat patients with heart attacks.

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A multi-institutional team led by Dianna Milewicz, M.D., Ph.D., of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) has found a recurrent genetic mutation that has been linked to deadly thoracic aortic dissections in family members as young as 17 years of age.

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A decade-long study in Corpus Christi, Texas, shows steep drops in stroke, but the stroke rate is still 34 percent higher among Mexican Americans than non-Hispanic whites.

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Rural households in developing countries often rely on burning biomass, such as wood, animal dung and waste from agricultural crops, to cook and heat their homes. The practice is long known to cause lung disease, but a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine links the resulting smoke to cardiovascular problems, including an increase in artery-clogging plaques, artery thickness and higher blood pressure.