The Editor at News-Medical.Net editor@news-medical.net

Drug eluting stents should be used with caution in acute myocardial infarction
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29432
Drug-eluting stents are extremely effective devices to prevent restenosis following angioplasty. Yet, since last year, there is some debate and persistent uncertainty regarding the long term safety of these devices. Specifically, there is concern that some of these stents may occlude abruptly more than 1 year after placement, due to "late stent thrombosis".

Gender (dis)advantages in cardiac remodeling
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29431
The topic of gender-related differences in cardiac care is an extremely complex one. Unfortunately women have been neglected in several fields of medicine for too long. I think that cardiology is only one of the many fields in the past where the male predominance was obvious.

Imaging is everything: What the clinician needs to know
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29430
In recent years, the concept of multimodality imaging has emerged coincident with advances in the newer technologies of Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR) and Coronary Computed Tomography (CCT).

Imaging and percutaneous valve therapy
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29429
The scope of percutaneous cardiac therapy has expanded from percutaneous coronary and peripheral intervention to percutaneous valve intervention, first used in the mid- eighties. Today mitral regurgitation represents the second most important native valve disease in Europe (30%) as shown by the Euro Heart Survey.

Fat: An active player in the regulation of many processes in health and disease
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29428
Why should we be interested in doing obesity-related research? Emphasis is put on this type of research simply because of the fact that the epidemiological data and predictions are alarming. Worldwide it is estimated that one person in every eight is overweight and more than 300 millions are obese

Cell phone use after bedtime is prevalent among adolescents - contributes to poor sleep
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29372
The use of modern means of interpersonal and mass communication has become an essential part of being young. Technology has enabled two people to connect with each other virtually anywhere and at any time, a privilege that, according to new research, is often abused by youngsters and cutting into their sleep time.

Teenage girls who are dieting are almost twice as likely to start smoking
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29370
Teenage girls who are dieting are almost twice as likely to start smoking regularly as girls who are not dieting, according to a new study of nearly 8,000 adolescents. With boys, cigarette availability rather than the desire to lose weight is a factor in the decision to give smoking a try.

Radiation and drug combo helps boost efficacy of lung cancer treatment
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29418
Combining radiation therapy with a drug that helps destroy blood vessels nourishing malignant tumors has been shown in mice to be significantly more effective in treating lung cancer than either approach alone, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found.

More hours a person works, the less sleep they get
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29427
Work time is the primary lifestyle factor with the largest reciprocal relationship to a person's sleep time - the more hours a person works, the less sleep that he or she gets, according to a study published in the September 1 issue of the journal SLEEP.

Genetic-based dosing in orthopedic patients beginning warfarin therapy
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29382
Doctors prescribing blood thinners have had to go through a lengthy trial-and-error process to arrive at the optimal dose for their patients. But now the process can be faster and safer, thanks to research conducted at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Impact of indoor air quality on COPD patients
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29415
Poor indoor air quality can significantly worsen health problems in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), according to researchers in Scotland. High concentrations of fine particulate pollution - the type of pollution associated with secondhand smoke and, in developing countries, indoor cooking and heating fires - were strongly linked to poorer health status.

Red wine for prostate cancer
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29419
Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) have found that nutrients in red wine may help reduce the risk of developing prostate cancer. The study involved male mice that were fed a plant compound found in red wine called resveratrol, which has shown anti-oxidant and anti-cancer properties.

African-Americans and other racial minorities more likely to have sleep durations associated with increased mortality
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29401
African-Americans and other racial minorities have sleep durations associated with increased mortality. This is consistent with the belief that unhealthy sleep patterns among minorities - long sleep or short sleep - may contribute to health differentials, according to a study published in the September 1 issue of the journal SLEEP.

Quarter of HIV patients believe their doctors stigmatize them
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29412
Physicians might want to be extra careful about how they treat HIV-infected patients - not just in the clinical sense but in the way they behave toward them. Even the perception that physicians are stigmatizing patients for carrying the virus that causes AIDS can discourage these individuals from seeking proper medical care, according to a new UCLA study.

Take the stairs messages in shopping malls work
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29423
What would it take to get you to use the stairs instead of the escalator at your local mall? A team of British researchers has found that healthy messages printed on stair risers attract climbers and might even encourage them to descend the stairs later.

Secondhand smoke and pets
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29421
It has been in the news for years about how secondhand smoke is a health threat to nonsmokers. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that secondhand smoke is attributed with killing thousands of adult nonsmokers annually.

Role of self monitoring in patients with type 2 diabetes
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29414
A new study published on bmj.com calls for better advice about home blood glucose monitoring for patients with non-insulin dependent (type 2) diabetes.Type 2 diabetes usually develops in people over 40, especially when the person is overweight.

Diacetyl is a respiratory hazard
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29377
Researchers in the Netherlands have identified a chemical agent that may be a, if not the, culprit in bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS), or "popcorn worker's lung," a severe occupational lung disease first noted in 2001 among workers at an American plant that makes microwaveable popcorn.

Interferon alpha revs immune cells but cancer cells ignore it
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29400
A new study shows that an important drug used in the treatment of malignant melanoma has little effect on the melanoma cells themselves. Instead, it activates immune-system cells to fight the disease.

Cancer patients describe what they seek from support groups
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29375
A new study finds that many cancer patients would prefer to receive information over emotional aid from support groups, although – over time – their needs could change. Although clinicians and others frequently advise cancer patients to join support groups to deal with the psychological consequences of their diagnosis, a minority of cancer patients actually joins.

New and very different schizophrenia drug shows promise
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29402
Scientists at Eli Lilly say the first human trial of a new schizophrenia drug shows promise for sufferers of the debilitating mental illness.

Lowering homocysteine with B-vitamins does not reduce cardiovascular risk
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29393
Secondary prevention with homocysteine-lowering B-vitamins does not reduce risk of death or major cardiovascular events, according to the WENBIT study.

OPTIMIST: The Outcome of PCI for stent-ThrombosIs MultIcentre STudy
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29391
Stent thrombosis is a recognized complication occurring in 1-2% of patients with coronary artery disease treated by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with stent implantation. Its occurrence is expected to increase with the number of stent implantation procedures done worldwide. Moreover, stent thrombosis is a hot topic in the cardiology community.

getABI study finds that even mild atherosclerosis in the legs increases mortality substantially
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29390
Patients with atherosclerosis in the leg arteries face a substantially increased all-cause and cardiovascular mortality risk, according to a large study presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Vienna.

How to influence the risk profile of a nation
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29387
Professor Geoffrey Rose was a pioneer in the field of prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD). He emphasized in his works how CHD prevention calls for general reduction in risk factor levels in the population, i.e. population based approach. Geoffrey Rose wrote: "It makes little sense to expect individuals to behave differently form their peers, it is more appropriate to seek a general change in behavioural norms and in the circumstances which facilitate their adoption."

Patent foramen ovale (PFO) and atrial septal defect (ASD) closure
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29373
A PFO and an ASD are congenital structural heart diseases characterized by a communication between heart chambers at the level of the wall (septum) separating them. These chambers are the left and right atrium as shown on the picture below. The right atrium receives (dark) oxygen-depleted blood from the great veins, while the left atrium receives (red) oxygen-rich blood from the lungs.

The goals of platelet inhibition in acute coronary syndromes
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29371
Platelet activation and aggregation play important roles in the pathogenesis of cardiac ischemic events after either spontaneous plaque disruption in acute coronary syndromes or mechanical disruption of coronary artery plaques caused by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), which could be considered an artificially induced acute coronary syndrome.

Immediate emergency angioplasty can save the lives of those experiencing MI
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29363
We have demonstrated that patients who have an acute myocardial infarction and are admitted to a hospital which has no possibility to perform direct angioplasty, benefit from being transferred immediately after having received thrombolytics to a hospital where angioplasty (percutaneous coronary intervention, PCI, often including stent implantation) can be immediately performed.

How to optimally prepare a patient for planned coronary angiography and subsequent angioplasty?
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29361
A Czech study compared two anti-clotting treatment regimens, currently used before coronary angiography / angioplasty to find the optimal balance between preventing ischemic versus bleeding complications of these procedures. The study was conducted in five Czech tertiary cardiology centers.

Do we harm women when we treat them in the same way as men?
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29362
Half of the female population in the western world die of cardiovascular disease. Neither the women themselves, nor society at large recognizes this fact. Maybe because of this, research on women with acute coronary syndromes is scarce and thus we lack knowledge about the best way to properly treat women with an acute myocardial infarction.

A drug-sensitive 'traffic cop' tells potassium channels to get lost
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29366
Our brains are buzzing with electrical activity created by sodium and potassium ions moving in and out of neurons through specialized pores. To prevent the constant chatter from descending into chaos the activity of these ion channels has to be tightly regulated.

First European guidelines on the management of valvular heart disease
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29358
Today valve disease still represents an important health problem; valve patients are getting older and older with more and more comorbities, which contribute to increased operative risk and render the decision-making process more difficult.

Guidelines on the management of non-ST elevation acute coronary syndromes
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29357
New guidelines for the management of non-ST segment elevation acute coronary syndromes (NSTE-ACS) were released by the European Society of Cardiology in June 2007 replacing previous guidelines of 2002.

New ESC CVD prevention guidelines provide the key to maintaining a healthy heart
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29356
The new (Fourth) Joint European Society's Guidelines on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention in clinical practice were launched at the ESC Annual Conference today.

DES: friend or foe?
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29355
The current FDA approved stents (CYPHER and TAXUS) have been associated with late stent thrombosis (LST) (>30days following implantation) however, the mechanisms predictive of LST are poorly understood. Pathologic studies are one of the best methods for detailed analysis of morphologic changes that occur after placement of Drug Eluting Stents to determine the causes of LST.

Discovery suggests location of genes for breast density, a strong risk factor for breast cancer
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29354
Studying the DNA of 889 people, gene hunters at the Mayo Clinic and H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Centers have identified a region on chromosome 5p that is significantly associated with dense breast tissue, a known risk factor for breast cancer.

The burden of diabetes in heart disease in Europe
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29352
Diabetes is becoming one of the major health problems in the European and US populations. It is frequently associated with overweight, hypertension and high serum cholesterol levels, representing a dangerous combination of risk factors for the development of heart and vascular diseases.

Risk stratification in acute heart failure
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29351
Hospitalization for acute heart failure is the most relevant burden for the health systems in both Europe and North America. Despite its dramatic impact on patient survival, quality of life and health costs, relatively few studies have been conducted in patients with this clinical condition in order to identify effective therapeutic strategies able to improve not only symptoms but also patient survival.

Long term follow up of additional Swedish registry data does not indicate an increased
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29350
Four years of follow up including additional patients in the Swedish Coronary angiography and angioplasty registry (SCAAR) does no longer indicate any increased mortality in patients treated with drug eluting stents compared to patients treated with bare metal stents.

Blood pressure drugs cut death rate in diabetes
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29349
The largest-ever study of treatments for diabetes has shown that a fixed combination of two blood pressure lowering drugs reduces the risk of death, as well as the risks of heart and kidney disease. Results from the ADVANCE (Action in Diabetes and Vascular Disease) Study were presented today at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2007 in Vienna.

The first clinically available oral direct renin inhibitor shows promise in heart failure
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29348
Drugs that block a hormonal cascade, known as the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS), help patients with heart failure. Direct renin inhibitors (DRIs) block the RAAS at its first and rate-limiting step.

Clinical reality of coronary prevention in Europe : A comparison
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29347
Dr Kornelia Kotseva, Consultant Cardiologist and the Project Manager for the EUROASPIRE III survey commented "despite the increase in prophylactic drug therapy, the majority of coronary patients in Europe have still not achieved the blood pressure target and two out of five are not achieving the total cholesterol goal".

Efficacy of non-invasive ventilation in patients with acute cardiogenic pulmonary oede
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29346
Acute cardiogenic pulmonary oedema, or "fluid on the lung", is a common, extremely distressing and often fatal condition that is a major consumer of health care resources. The aim of the 3CPO trial was to establish whether high-pressure oxygen, given by a simple facemask, could help reduce the death rate in patients with this condition.

Are there gender differences in management modalities?
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29345
There are major differences in the risk profile and characteristics of female patients treated for acute heart failure. Female patients are underrepresented in management trials on Heart Failure. According to data from the Euro Heart Survey on acute Heart Failure 2004-2005 in Europe, however, medical treatment has improved.

Survey to evaluate arrhythmia rate in so-called high-risk MI patients
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29344
Sudden cardiac death is the leading cause of mortality in European and North-American countries. Studies have been attempting to identify the right population of patients at high risk of Sudden Cardiac Death ever since the introduction of the Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICD).

Does physical activity provide a molecular key to longevity?
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29343
Fitness and physical exercise are among the most neglected means to improve prognosis. They are the healthiest cardiovascular intervention. Even cardiologists focus on pharmacological treatment and evaluate classical risk factors without asking about daily exercise or objective measures of physical capacity. It is surprising considering the strong data that underscores the survival benefit of regular exercise training.

Many city convenience stores lacking health foods
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29338
A survey of convenience stores in the south west section of Rochester has revealed that 95% offer little or no healthy foods.

Effects of smoking in cars
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29332
It's Labor Day weekend and you have packed the family into the car for the two-hour drive to grandma's house.

Discovery of novel cause of iron overload in patients with thalassemia
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29324
According to the study, thalassemia patients overproduce a protein called GDF15, which suppresses the production of a liver protein, hepcidin, which in turn leads to an increase in the uptake of dietary iron in the gut.

Impact of mild hearing loss on neurological processes
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=29325
Mild to moderate forms of hearing loss can have a lasting impact on the auditory cortex, according to findings by researchers at New York University's Center for Neural Science.

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