Barcelona, Spain, 1 September: The goals of the PreSCD II (Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death II) registry are to collect recent data on patients with high risk for sudden cardiac death after a heart attack and to describe their prognosis in relation to initial left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) as the primary risk marker.
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COLLEGE PARK, Md. – A laboratory study by University of Maryland researchers suggests that some of the worst fears about a virulent H1N1 pandemic flu season may not be realized this year, but does demonstrate the heightened communicability of the virus.
Fears that medical research using tissue such as blood or material from biopsies would be obstructed by the Human Tissue Act 2004 may have been unfounded, a new study from the University of Leicester reveals.
In fact, the research suggests that the Act may have helped medical research by giving Research Ethics Committees clarity when making decisions.
Many medical researchers in UK universities and research institutions had feared that the legislation would unduly restrict research based on tissue samples and that ethics committees might struggle to interpret the Act.
Barcelona, Spain, 1 September: Most research in atrial fibrillation (AF) has focused on reducing stroke and other embolic events. Yet heart failure occurs more frequently in AF patients, but has not been the focus of intervention research.
In a major international trial, researchers from McMaster University in Canada, found that the hypertension drug irbesartan reduced the risk of heart failure complications and the combination of stroke, other embolic events and transient ischemic events, also known as ministrokes, in patients with atrial fibrillation.
Barcelona, Spain, 1 September: Asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic cardiac patients randomised to an implanted cardiac resynchronisation device with defibrillator (CRT-D) have a 34% lower risk of heart failure or death than those receiving a standard implanted cardioverter defibrillator (ICD-only) (HR 0.66, p=0.001), according to results from the MADIT-CRT (Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial with Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy) study.
Barcelona, Spain, 1 September: The KYOTO HEART Study, which took place in Japan between January 2004 and January 2009, shows that the addition of valsartan to conventional antihypertensive treatment to improve blood pressure control is associated with an improved cardiovascular outcome in Japanese hypertensive patients at high risk of CVD events.
Chevy Chase, MD—Adolescent and young children of obese mothers who underwent weight-loss surgery prior to pregnancy have been found to have a lower prevalence of obesity and significantly improved cardio-metabolic markers when compared to siblings born before the same obese mothers had weight-loss surgery. This new study has been accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
Chevy Chase, MD—A moderate aerobic exercise program, without weight loss, can improve insulin sensitivity in both lean and obese sedentary adolescents, according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas that permits glucose to enter cells to be used for energy or stored for future use by the body.
Barcelona, Spain, 1 September: Atrial fibrillation ablation is one of the fastest growing techniques in cardiology and due to the very high number of patients that might be candidates to this procedure, a significant number of resources will have to be devoted to it to be able to treat them in the following years.
Barcelona, Spain, 1 September 2009: The REVISE Study (Reveal in the Investigation of Syncope and Epilepsy) found that 1 in 8 adult patients in the United Kingdom, previously thought to be suffering from epilepsy or in whom this diagnosis was in doubt, in fact had symptoms as a result of an abnormal pattern of heart beating, commonly found in patients with syncope (fainting).
Barcelona, Spain, 1 September: The wider use of reperfusion therapy in patients with heart attack (AMI) can save millions of lives in Europe. Effective reperfusion therapy in an AMI patient can cut the individual risk of dying by half. AMI is caused by a sudden blockage of a coronary artery, one of the vessels supplying the heart muscle with oxygen and nutrients. Effective reperfusion therapy provides a timely and sustainable reopening of the blockage.
Barcelona, Spain, 1 September: Mortality rate following a heart attack has fallen by more than 50% in Europe over the past 25 years. However, because only minor advances in the medical treatment of AMI are expected over the next decade, it is through organisational changes in the pre-hospital phase that mortality rate will continue this decline to below 5%.
Lausanne, Switzerland– Gene Signal, a company focused on developing innovative drugs to manage angiogenesis based conditions, today announced the publication of interim results from a phase II study suggesting that the antisense oligonucleotide GS-101 (eye drops) is safe and effective at inhibiting and regressing corneal neovascularisation (abnormal new blood vessel growth). Neovascularisation in this part of the eye is a major risk factor in corneal graft rejection, the most common transplantation procedure that saves the sight of approximately 46,000 people worldwide each year.
BETHESDA, Md. (September 1, 2009) — Chronic alcohol consumption blunts the biological clock's ability to synchronize daily activities to light, disrupts natural activity patterns and continues to affect the body's clock (circadian rhythm), even days after the drinking ends, according to a new study with hamsters.
The study describes the changes that drinking can produce on the body's master clock and how it affects behavior. The research provides a way to study human alcoholism using an animal model, said researcher Christina L. Ruby.
MAYWOOD, Il -- A therapy called cardiac resynchronization can significantly delay the progression of heart failure, according to a major international study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.