Heart
Statins Reduce Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke in Those Without Heart Disease
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Among individuals without cardiovascular disease, taking statins regularly may reduce the risk of major heart and cerebrovascular events such as heart attack and stroke but not coronary heart disease or overall death, according to a meta-analysis of previously published studies, reported in the November 27 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Statins have been shown to reduce death and other negative outcomes associated with heart and cerebrovascular disease among those who already have these conditions, according to background information in the article.
Heart valve grown from amniotic stem cells
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Stem cells extracted from amniotic fluid can be induced to grow on a polymer scaffold into a fully functional human heart valve that will open and close like a native valve, Swiss researchers report. The process may eventually find application in infants with damaged heart valves.
At the American Heart Association’s 2006 Scientific Sessions, Dr. Simon P. Hoerstrup of University Hospital of Zurich described his group’s findings from experiments with amniotic fluid-derived stem cells seeded onto leaflet-shaped biodegradable scaffolds.
Sleep apnea patients at higher risk for deadly heart disease, says new SLU research
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People with sleep apnea could also be at risk for a particular kind of deadly heart arrhythmia, finds Saint Louis University researchers. They presented the findings this week at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions meeting in Chicago.
Researchers looked at 134 patients with coronary heart disease who hadn’t been diagnosed with a sleep disorder. In the patients who had a type of an irregular heartbeat called ventricular premature contraction, more than 40 percent also had severe sleep apnea – and didn’t realize it.
“The real worry is that benign arrhythmia can be a harbinger of a much more serious – and lethal – heart rhythm disorder,” says principal investigator Raj Bhalodia, M.D., of Saint Louis University School of Medicine. “While most people with the mild version of arrhythmia will be just fine, in some people, it’s possible it can worsen during the night and lead to sudden death.”
Diets and heart health - no difference between low carb and low fat
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A new study has shown that when it comes to diet programs and heart health, there is little to choose between low carbohydrate diets such as the popular Atkins plan and typical low-fat diets.
The researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health say neither is more likely to either cause heart disease, or prevent it.
Moderate drinking reduces men’s heart attack risk
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Even as studies have consistently found an association between moderate alcohol consumption and reduced heart attack risk in men, an important question has persisted: What if the men who drank in moderation were the same individuals who maintained good eating habits, didn’t smoke, exercised and watched their weight - How would you know that their reduced risk of myocardial infarction wasn’t the result of one or more of these other healthy habits?
A new study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) helps answer this question. Reported in the October 23, 2006 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, the findings show for the first time that among men with healthy lifestyles, those who consumed moderate amounts of alcohol - defined as between one-half and two drinks daily - had a 40 to 60 percent reduced risk of heart attack compared with healthy men who didn’t drink at all.
“This latest research speaks to how robust the link is between moderate drinking and heart attack risk,” explains lead author Kenneth Mukamal, MD, MPH, an internist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “The fact that we found the association [between alcohol consumption and heart attack] to be just as strong in this tightly controlled group of men as we’ve found it to be in more general studies suggests that physicians should not avoid alcohol consumption as a topic for discussion when talking with patients about ways to reduce their risk of myocardial infarction.”
Cell Wall of Pneumonia Bacteria Can Cause Brain and Heart Damage
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Investigators at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have discovered in mouse models how cell walls from certain pneumonia-causing bacteria can cause fatal heart damage; researchers have also shown how antibiotic therapy can contribute to this damage by increasing the number of cell wall pieces shed by dying bacteria. The team also demonstrated in a mouse model how to prevent this from happening.
The study shows that pieces of cell walls from Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria “hijack” a protein on the lining of the blood vessel wall and use it to slip out of the bloodstream and into the brain and heart. A report on this study appears in the November 1 issue of the Journal of Immunology.
These findings explain why blood stream infection with S. pneumoniae commonly leads to temporary impairment of heart function, and they suggest a way to prevent that from occurring, according to Elaine Tuomanen, M.D., chair of the St. Jude Department of Infectious Diseases. S. pneumoniae is a leading cause of pneumonia, sepsis (a potentially life-threatening bloodstream infection) and meningitis (inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord).
Statins can significantly reduce the incidence of stroke, myocardial infarction
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New research suggests that statins can significantly reduce the incidence of stroke, myocardial infarction (MI), or all-cause death in patients with severe carotid arterial disease not revascularized.
The study, presented at CHEST 2006, the 72nd annual international scientific assembly of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), showed that statins notably reduced such incidences in these nonrevascularized patients with chronic high cholesterol, as well.
Heart disease a threat to older diabetics-study
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Elderly people with diabetes are twice as likely to die from cardiovascular disease than non-diabetics, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.
Dr. Joshua Barzilay of Kaiser Permanente in Tucker, Georgia, and colleagues studied a group of about 6,000 people older than 65 for 11 years. During that period, more than 40 percent of the people died, and about 50 percent to 60 percent of the deaths were attributed to heart-related problems, they wrote in a report in the online journal Public Library of Science.
Early heart attack survival worse for women
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Gender does not influence long-term heart attack survival, according to findings published in the European Heart Journal. However, in the short-term, while still hospitalized for the heart attack, women are more likely to die than men.
“Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of death in women in western society, and currently more women die of cardiovascular disease than men,” Dr. Vernon V. S. Bonarjee, of the University of Bergen, Stavanger, Norway, and colleagues write. Although the frequency of heart attack increases sharply with age, women are less likely to develop a heart attack than are men at any age.
The researchers examined the short- and long-term gender-related differences in survival among high-risk patients with heart attack. A total of 5,477 subjects were followed for an average of 2.7 years.
Heart attacks decline after smoking ban
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A Colorado city ban on smoking at workplaces and in public buildings may have sparked a steep decline in heart attacks, researchers reported on Monday.
In the 18 months after a no-smoking ordinance took effect in Pueblo in 2003, hospital admissions for heart attacks for city residents dropped 27 percent, according to the study led by Dr. Carl Bartecchi, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver.
“Heart attack hospitalizations did not change significantly for residents of surrounding Pueblo County or in the comparison city of Colorado Springs, neither of which have non-smoking ordinances,” said the American Heart Association, which published the study in its journal Circulation.
Early Statin Therapy for Patients Who Had Acute Coronary Syndromes Reduces Death, Cardiovascular Eve
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Early, intensive therapy with statin medications reduces death and cardiovascular events for patients who have had heart attacks or other acute heart events, according to an analysis of previous studies published in the September 25 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Statins, commonly taken to lower cholesterol levels, have clearly been shown to benefit patients with cardiovascular disease, according to background information in the article. However, it is less clear whether these drugs provide a short-term benefit when given immediately to patients hospitalized for acute coronary syndrome, the group of heart disorders associated with myocardial ischemia (a lack of blood flow to the heart). In addition to reducing cholesterol, statins may stabilize the amount of plaque build-up in arteries, reduce inflammation, prevent blood clotting, reduce blood pressure and improve the functioning of blood vessels, all of which could improve outcomes for patients with acute coronary syndrome.
U.S. panel backs use of Bayer heart surgery drug
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Bayer AG’s drug Trasylol provides acceptable safety and effectiveness for preventing blood loss in certain patients undergoing heart bypass surgery, a U.S. advisory panel said on Thursday.
The Food and Drug Administration advisers voted in favor of Trasylol after reviewing data on heart attacks, strokes, kidney damage and allergic reactions in people treated with the drug.
The experts from outside the FDA agreed Trasylol treatment appeared linked to a higher rate of kidney dysfunction but many questioned the validity of research that found a connection to heart attacks and strokes.
High lipoprotein(a) ups heart risk in women
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Very high levels of lipoprotein(a), measured by a state-of-the-art assay, are independently associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events in healthy women, Boston-based investigators report.
The investigators note, however, that the finding does not “support generalized screening of lipoprotein(a) in the population as a whole, because only extremely high levels were associated with cardiovascular risk.” Moreover, most lipid-correcting therapies currently available have no effect on lipoprotein(a) concentrations.
Instead, they recommend that high-risk individuals with elevated levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol should be treated aggressively, with a statin or with niacin, when lipoprotein(a) levels are also high.
Low lead levels linked to heart deaths
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Research suggests that even low blood levels of lead may raise the risk of adverse heart and circulatory outcomes.
Previous reports have linked lead levels above 10 micrograms per deciliter with increased risks of death. The safety of lower levels, which are present in 99 percent of US adults, was unclear.
To investigate, Dr. Paul Muntner, from Tulane University in New Orleans, and colleagues analyzed data from 13,946 adults who participated in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1988 to 1994 and were followed for up to 12 years.
Mobile phones, how addictive are they?
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People can become very attached to their mobile phones and some may even show signs of addictive behaviour, a British researcher said on Thursday.
In a study that analysed how students feel about their phones, David Sheffield, of the University of Staffordshire in Stoke-on-Trent, found that some of their reactions were similar to symptoms associated with pathological gambling.
“Mobile phones have become a very significant part of everyday life and their use can have some detrimental effects,” he said.
