Culture

SAN FRANCISCO (March 10, 2013) — Patients with a type of coronary lesion linked with poor prognosis fared significantly better with the stent technique known as double kissing crush than with culotte stenting, according to data from the DKCRUSH-III trial presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session.

For years, researchers have developed thin films of bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) – which converts heat into electricity or electricity to cooling – on top of gallium arsenide (GaAs) to create cooling devices for electronics. But while they knew it could be done, it was not clear how – because the atomic structures of those unlikely pair of materials do not appear to be compatible. Now researchers from North Carolina State University and RTI International have solved the mystery, opening the door to new research in the field.

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) —A scientific survey of more than 9,700 gun retailers in the U.S. has found that gun buyers frequently try to make illegal purchases and that gun retailers take a dim view of fellow sellers who engage in illegal activity — regardless of whether they are actively breaking the law or simply looking the other way.

EMBARGOED UNTIL 7:45 PM ET, Sunday, March 10, 2013, Cleveland: Researchers from Cleveland Clinic and Sweden-based Sahlgrenska University Hospital have found that a commonly used drug to treat anemia in heart failure patients –darbepoetin alfa – does not improve patients' health, nor does it reduce their risk of death from heart failure.

Results of the international study were presented at the American College of Cardiology's annual meeting in San Francisco on March 10 and published simultaneously online by the New England Journal of Medicine.

Even though young athletes are required to receive health screens to be cleared to play sports, those tests failed to detect important cardiovascular abnormalities in cleared players, and many were allowed to play despite suspicions of dangerous cardiovascular conditions, according to a large registry study of patients who died from sudden death, being presented March 10 by Kevin Harris, MD, research cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation (MHIF). The data is being presented at the annual American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions in San Francisco.

A single dose of an investigational anti-inflammatory drug called inclacumab considerably reduces damage to heart muscle during angioplasty (the opening of a blocked artery), according to a recent international clinical trial spearheaded by Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif, Director of the Research Centre at the Montreal Heart Institute, affiliated with the University of Montreal. Presented today in San Francisco at the prestigious American cardiology conference, these findings show great promise.

Transfusion of donated blood more than three weeks old results in impaired blood vessel function, a new study of hospital patients shows.

Blood banks now consider six weeks to be the maximum permitted storage time of blood for use in transfusion, but recent studies have suggested transfusing blood stored for more than a few weeks has adverse effects in patients undergoing cardiac surgery or critical care.

DETROIT – A class of medications commonly prescribed to lower blood sugar in diabetic patients appears to protect them from developing heart failure, according to a study at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

"People with diabetes are at risk for developing heart failure," says Henry Ford researcher and cardiologist David Lanfear, M.D., lead author of the study. "Diabetic adults die of heart disease two to four times more than those without diabetes.

A clinical decision support tool helped physicians identify patients at high risk of bleeding complications prior to undergoing a coronary intervention procedure and helped guide the use of bleeding avoidance strategies, leading to less complications and a shorter hospital stay, according to a study being presented March 10 at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions.

More than 1.3 million percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs) are performed each year in the United States. Bleeding during and after these procedures is a common risk (3 – 6%).

SALT LAKE CITY – Researchers at the Intermountain Heart Institute at Intermountain Medical Center have developed an innovative tool designed to eliminate 30-day hospital readmissions for heart failure patients and improve the quality of medical care a patient receives in the hospital.

The tool, known as the IMRS-HF, was adapted from the Intermountain Risk Score (IMRS) that has been used at Intermountain Medical Center to predict mortality rates in trauma patients.

The belief among medical professionals in the 1950s that the mortality rate for type A acute aortic dissection during the initial 24 hours was one to two percent per hour appears to hold true in the contemporary era of treatment, based on a review of the large-scale IRAD registry being presented March 9 at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Scientific Sessions.

PHOENIX – A Mayo Clinic study has concluded that patients with implanted cardiac devices such as pacemakers and defibrillators can safely drive or ride in an electric car without risk of electromagnetic interference (EMI).

The study, titled "Hybrid Cars and Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators: Is It Safe?"

is the first of its kind to address the interaction between these devices and electric cars. It will be presented at the 2013 American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Session in San Francisco on March 9.

Even though a newly recognized cardiomyopathy, which mainly impacts women, is typically treatable, Tako-tsubo cardiomyopathy can also be deadly when compounded by other co-morbidities, such as heart failure, according to a study being presented March 9 at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Scientific Sessions.

HOUSTON – (March 8, 2013) – A more rapid laboratory test for pregnant women to detect potentially deadly Group B strep (GBS) has been successful at identifying GBS colonization in six and a half hours, according to the results of a study from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

ROSEMONT, Ill.—Weight loss may prevent and significantly alleviate the symptoms of osteoarthritis, a progressive disease of the joints known as "wear and tear" arthritis, according to a literature review appearing in the March 2013 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (JAAOS).

According to the article, obesity actually may trigger the biomechanical and inflammatory changes that cause osteoarthritis, and the pain and loss of mobility associated with the condition.