Barcelona, Spain, 30 August: A landmark international study led by McMaster University researchers found high doses of the blood thinner clopidogrel (Plavix) significantly reduce complications in heart patients undergoing angioplasty to clear blocked arteries.
Angioplasty, also known as percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), carries with it the risk of a heart attack and stent thrombosis, the formation of life-threatening blood clots inside stents that prop open narrowed arteries.
Barcelona, Spain, 30 August: Concomitant kidney dysfunction and/or worsening renal function in patients with heart failure is a frequent finding and is associated with a poor prognosis. Current treatment of heart failure has beneficial effects on cardiac function but does not favorably affect renal function. The possibility to improve renal function and/or obtain kidney protection with new drugs or devices is still uncertain.
Barcelona, Spain, 30 August: Heart failure patients may benefit from treatment of anaemia similarly to those with chronic kidney disease (CKD) or cancer.
Anaemia is common to many diseases (chronic kidney disease, cancer, chronic heart failure) as well as a consequence of treatment for diseases such as cancer, specifically with chemotherapeutic agents. Anaemia may contribute to lethargy, reduced exercise tolerance and poor quality of life. Therefore, raising haemoglobin (Hb) in anaemic patients has long been thought to be a beneficial therapeutic goal.
Barcelona, Spain, 31 August: A new trial has begun in order to ascertain once and for all whether the best strategy for patients who cannot receive P-PCI is early fibrinolysis, together with mandated angiography. This is the STREAM trial whose principal investigators are Profs Frans van der Werf, Paul Armstrong and Tony Gershlick.
Barcelona, Spain, 31 August: Cardiac events are the major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery, and new guidelines issued today by the European Society of Cardiology address this common and complicated challenge.
Barcelona, Spain, August 30: Data from a phase II trial of an investigational intravenous drug designed to block the formation of blood clots shows potential to reduce the risk of death, a second heart attack, or other coronary complications compared with the current standard of care in patients presenting with acute coronary syndromes (heart attacks or unstable angina).
Viruses have numerous tricks for dodging the immune system. In the September 7, 2009 issue of the Journal of Cell Biology, Stagg et al. reveal a key detail in one of these stratagems, identifying a protein that enables cyto¬megalovirus to shut down an antiviral defense (online August 31).
Barcelona, Spain, 31 August: Studies from a growing body of convincing data show that responsiveness to antiplatelet therapy is real. This is a clinically important issue and there is a need to develop individual antiplatelet strategies particularly for patients at risk. Further studies are needed to find out whether a personalized antiplatelet therapy can improve platelet inhibition and net clinical outcome in patients identified by non-genetic and genetic risk analysis.
Barcelona, Spain, 31 August: The beneficial effects of aspirin in primary prevention of cardiovascular events i.e. stroke, MI and cardiac death are known and generally accepted. In a recent meta-analysis total cardiovascular event rate was shown to be reduced by 12% and the rate of myocardial infarctions by 18% (Lancet 2009; 373, 1849-60). This holds specifically true for individuals with a 10-year risk for cardiac death above 5% or a total cardiovascular event risk above 15%.
The drywood termite, Cryptotermes secundus, eavesdrops on its more aggressive subterranean competitor, Coptotermes acinaciformis, to avoid contact with it, according to scientists from CSIRO Entomology and the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy.
SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 31, 2009 — Researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah have shed new light on Ewing's sarcoma, an often deadly bone cancer that typically afflicts children and young adults. Their research shows that patients with poor outcomes have tumors with high levels of a protein known as GSTM4, which may suppress the effects of chemotherapy. The research is published online today in the journal Oncogene.
A team of Michigan State University researchers has developed a new, more efficient way of cloning zebra fish, a breakthrough that could have implications for human health research.
The work of the MSU researchers, detailed in the recent issue of the journal Nature Methods, is important because zebra fish, small striped fish common to many aquariums, are quickly becoming the animal of choice for many researchers.
Scientists have developed a new molecular sensor that can reveal the amount of zinc in cells, which could tell us more about a number of diseases, including type 2 diabetes. The research, published today in Nature Methods, opens the door to the hidden world of zinc biology by giving scientists an accurate way of measuring the concentration of zinc and its location in cells for the first time.
Investigators at Hospital for Special Surgery, collaborating with researchers from other institutions, have contributed to the discovery that a gene called interferon regulator factor-8 (IRF-8) is involved in the development of diseases such as periodontitis (gum disease), rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis. The study, which will be published online August 30, ahead of print, in the journal Nature Medicine, could lead to new treatments in the future.
ROCHESTER, Minn. -- A national team of researchers led by scientists at Mayo Clinic has found that a common treatment for primary sclerosing cholangitis, a chronic liver disease, is not helpful for patients, according to a study published this month in the journal Hepatology.