Heart
Mechanics of atherosclerosis
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Atherosclerotic narrowing and hardening of coronary arteries typically appear first at vessel branches, and a study in the October issue of Cellular Signalling reports that the type of mechanical stretching found at those branches activates a cellular protein known to damage cells.
The report is the first to link mechanical forces with structural and biochemical changes in blood vessel cells that could explain why atherosclerotic lesions form preferentially at branches of coronary arteries.
The findings, which are currently available online at the journal’s Website, were reported by a team of scientists at the University of California, San Diego as part of an ongoing effort to understand how mechanical forces affect the health of cells that line arteries.
Leg length linked to heart disease risk
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Having longer legs may put you at lower risk of heart disease, new findings show.
In an analyses of data from 12,254 men and women aged 44 to 65, Dr. Kate Tilling of the University of Bristol in the UK and colleagues found a direct association between leg length and intimal-medial thickness (IMT), a measurement of the thickness of blood vessel walls used to detect the early stages of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries.
The longer a person’s legs, they found, the thinner their carotid artery walls were, indicating less buildup of deposits within these blood vessels and a lower risk of heart disease and stroke.
Heart failure may run in family, study hints
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The children of parents with heart failure have an increased likelihood of developing the condition themselves, new findings from the Framingham Offspring Study suggest.
“If our findings are confirmed, there would be added justification for adding heart failure to the list of conditions that one can inquire about when obtaining family history of medical disorders from patients,” Dr. Vasan S. Ramachandran told Reuters Health.
Ramachandran, from Boston University School of Medicine, and colleagues investigated whether a parental history of heart failure increased the risk of impaired function of the left ventricle of the heart—its main pumping chamber—or overt heart failure in the offspring, using data from study participants.
Growing old with a partner a healthier option
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According to new research from Denmark older people who live alone are twice as likely to suffer serious heart disease than those who live with a partner.
Kirsten Nielsen, of Aarhus Sygehus University Hospital, in a three-year study of 138,000 people aged between 30 and 69 found that two of the strongest indicators for acute coronary syndrome, which includes severe angina, heart attacks and sudden cardiac death, are age and living alone.
The researchers found that heart disease was diagnosed in 646 people during that period and it was evident that though a poor education and living on a pension were associated with an increased risk of the syndrome, age and living alone were the main predictive factors.
Vascular disease risk factors may predict mortality
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Whether elderly men have a high or low risk of dying in the next four years can be estimated by using just two cardiovascular risk factors—plaque in the arteries of the neck and levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), an immune system protein that promotes inflammation, the results of a study published in the American Journal of Medicine indicate.
“Ways to predict the risk of cardiovascular events or all-cause mortality have largely been derived from populations in which old and very old subjects were underrepresented,” write Dr. Michiel L. Bots, of University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands, and colleagues.
The team therefore conducted a study to examine the usefulness of markers of inflammation and the presence of arterial plaque (atherosclerosis) in predicting all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in 403 men who were an average of 78 years old at study entry.
Soy component linked to heart health benefits
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A specific estrogen-like compound, daidzein, appears to be responsible for the healthy effects of soy on cholesterol levels in women, a new study shows.
Women with high levels of daidzein in their blood had lower levels of triglycerides, higher levels of HDL-C or “good” cholesterol, and healthier ratios of total to good cholesterol levels, Dr. C. Noel Bairey Merz of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and colleagues found.
The researchers note in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism that female monkeys fed a soy-rich diet show healthy changes in blood fat levels, the researchers note, but evidence of the effects of soy on cholesterol in humans has been mixed.
Defibrillators can increase heart failure risk
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Implanted cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) can improve the survival rates of carefully selected patients with chronic heart disease by 30 percent to 54 percent. However, investigators have found that ICDs also appear to increase the risk of heart failure.
ICDs are recommended for patients who have had a near-fatal episode of irregular heart rhythm, also referred to as an arrhythmia, and who have a high risk of another episode. The devices are designed to detect arrhythmias, where the heart beats too slowly or too rapidly, and to deliver a shock to restore normal rhythm.
Dr. Ilan Goldenberg, at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, and his associates reviewed the records of 1,197 patients who had an ICD. The investigators analyzed the factors associated with the progression to heart failure.
Daily Drinking Cuts Heart Disease Risk for Men
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Having a drink or two each day appears to be better for the heart than having a drink just now and then, at least for middle-aged men, a Danish study finds.
Men who drank moderately each day had a 41 percent lower risk of heart disease than abstainers, while the risk was only 7 percent lower for those who drank on no more than one day a week, the researchers found. The team found no such benefit to daily drinking for women, however.
“This is one more study suggesting that a modest to moderate amount of alcohol in the world of heart disease is reasonably healthy,” said Dr. Richard A. Stein, clinical professor of medicine at Albert Einstein Medical Center in New York, and a spokesman for the American Heart Association.
Common painkillers could up chance of heart failure in seniors
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New research has revealed that commonly used over-the-counter painkillers, such as ibuprofen, are linked with a 30% increased risk of first hospital admission for heart failure.
The researchers say that though that risk may at first glance appear quite small, it has implications in particular for the elderly who are at greater risk of heart failure.
They say the revelation may also have a considerable impact on public health.
Metabolic syndrome raises risk of heart failure
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The findings of a new study suggest that the metabolic syndrome is a risk factor for heart failure, and this relationship is seen with or without the presence of other known heart failure risk factors, such as previous heart attack.
Individuals with the metabolic syndrome have a cluster of heart disease and diabetes risk factors, such as excess body weight, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high cholesterol levels.
The results imply that the “metabolic syndrome provides important risk information beyond that of established risk factors for heart failure,” lead author Dr. Erik Ingelsson, from Uppsala University in Sweden, and colleagues note. They suggest that insulin resistance and higher than normal levels of insulin in the blood may underlie this increased heart failure risk in these patients.
Reduced Cabin Pressure, Oxygen Finds No Activation of Blood Clotting System
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Researchers simulating conditions of reduced cabin pressure and reduced oxygen levels, such as may be encountered during an 8 hour airplane flight, found no increase in the activation of the blood clotting system among healthy individuals, according to a study in the May 17 issue of JAMA.
Venous thromboembolism (blood clots in vein) has been associated with long-haul air travel, but it has been unclear whether this is due to the effects of sitting for a long time, or whether there is a relationship with some other specific factor in the airplane environment, according to background information in the article. One hypothesis has been that hypoxia (reduced oxygen in the blood), associated with decreased cabin pressure that occurs at altitude, produces changes in blood that increases the risk for blood clots.
William D. Toff, M.D., of the University of Leicester, England, and colleagues conducted a study, from September 2003 to November 2005, to assess the effects of hypoxia in conditions similar to that which might be encountered during commercial air travel, on a variety of markers of activation of the hemostatic (blood clotting) system. The study included 73 healthy volunteers who spent 8 hours seated in a hypobaric (below normal pressure) chamber and were exposed to hypobaric hypoxia, similar to the conditions that would occur with reduced airplane cabin pressure at an altitude of about 8,000 feet. Blood was drawn before and after exposure to assess activation of factors associated with hemostasis (blood clotting). Similar measurements were taken of the volunteers who also spent 8 hours seated in a controlled environment equivalent to atmospheric conditions at ground level (normobaric exposure).
Older hearts suitable for transplantation
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Long-term outcomes after transplantation of hearts from donors aged 50 years or older are broadly comparable to those achieved with hearts from younger donors, according to Canadian researchers.
“This is good news for people who are waiting for a heart transplant—knowing more than 20 percent of patients die waiting for a heart,” Dr. Shaoha Wang told Reuters Health.
In the March/April issue of the Journal of Cardiac Surgery, Wang and colleagues at the University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton report on their analysis of all 338 adult heart transplants performed at their institution over a 15-year period.
New method allows heart beat triggers to be viewed and better understood
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Being able to witness the precise events that form the heart’s orchestral rhythm or the rat-a-tat-tat of irregular heartbeats could enable researchers to better understand the underlying causes of arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death.
Indeed, a team from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Carnegie Mellon University report they have developed unique chemical dyes that have made it possible to see what the naked eye has never seen before: action potentials, or voltage changes, of cardiac cells - including those deep inside the heart, which trigger and determine the pace of heartbeats.
The researchers describe seven of these “Pittsburgh” dyes - PGH I to IV and VI to VIII, for short - in the current issue of the Journal of Membrane Biology. Importantly, the PGH dyes are able to follow the electrical activity of cells several layers below the surface of the heart where the cardiac contractions are initiated and propagated.
Home exercise may aid heavy heart failure patients
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A home-based exercise program for overweight or obese patients with advanced heart failure results in significant weight loss after six months, researchers in California report.
It’s well established that exercise is important for long-term weight control for overweight people, Dr. Lorraine S. Evangelista, of the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues point out. “However, little evidence exists confirming such findings in patients with advanced heart failure.”
To look into this, the researchers assigned 99 heart failure patients, classified as at least overweight, to a low-level, home-based exercise program or to a comparison “control” group. The participants’ average age was 53 years, and most were male, white and married, according to the report in the American Journal of Cardiology.
Abdominal obesity may boost heart failure risk
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Older adults who carry their fat around the middle may be at risk of chronic heart failure, even in the absence of other serious health conditions, research suggests.
In a study of more than 2,400 older men and women, researchers found that those with large waistlines were at increased risk of chronic heart failure - regardless of whether they had major risk factors like high blood pressure, diabetes or a history of heart attack.
The findings suggest that excessive abdominal fat, in and of itself, can contribute to heart failure, according to the investigators, led by Dr. Barbara J. Nicklas of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
