Life saving primary PCI rising in Stent for Life countriesPreventing sudden heart attacks in sportSafer than non-oral contraception?


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Life saving primary PCI rising in Stent for Life countries

Wednesday 16th May 2012 Paris, 16  May 2012: Life saving primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) treatment is increasing in countries participating in the Stent for Life Initiative.
 
These achievements and other activities will be revealed at EuroPCR 2012, 15-18 May, in Paris, France. EuroPCR is the official annual meeting of the European Association for Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI), a registered branch of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).
 
The Stent for Life Initiati…
 

Preventing sudden heart attacks in sport

Friday 11th May 2012 : The media, and understandably, sports fans across the world, were shocked by Fabrice Muamba’s on-pitch heart attack.  Whilst a tragedy was narrowly averted following some 78 minutes of resuscitation, it remains the case that even medical experts don't really understand this kind of sudden sporting heart attack.
 
 
 
Big gaps in basic knowledge about the numbers and causes of apparently inexplicable heart attacks among young sportsmen and women are seriously hampering our ability to …
 

Safer than non-oral contraception?

Friday 11th May 2012: A study published on bmj.com adds to the evidence that certain non-oral hormonal contraceptives (e.g. skin patches, implants and vaginal rings) carry a higher risk of serious blood clots (known as venous thromboembolism) than others.
 
The results show that if a woman shifts from a patch or vaginal ring to levonorgestrel intrauterine system, she will no longer be at an increased risk of venous thrombosis, while if she shifts to a 2nd generation pill (with levonorgestrel) she will half her ris…
 

Low Fat Dairy linked to lower stroke risk

Friday 20th April 2012: Researchers at the Institute of Environmental Medicine (Karolinska Institutet) in Stockholm and the National Institute for Health and Welfare, (Helsinki, Finland) have published results of a long-term follow up study into the effects of a low-fat dairy consumption on the risk of stroke. By following more than 70 thousand Swedish women over around ten years (during whicht ime they were able to identify some four thousand cases of stroke, three thousand cerebral infarctions, and around 600 hemorra…
 

Cold water for open science?

Thursday 19th April 2012: In an insightful analysis of the potential problems with open access to clinical research data, such as results from trials of medications used to treat heart disease, Dr. John Spertus ( Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute /UMKC) points out three potential problems with such data-sharing:
 
1) The difficulty in ensuring data pooled or analysed across multiple studies is processed correctly.  This is made more difficult by the limited number of reviewers able to identify flaws in suc…
 

How good is a percutaneous left atrial appendage occlusion (PLAAO)?

Tuesday 17th April 2012 : The British Medical Journal's HEART publication has released a very useful review by researchers in Denmark and Australia today on the topic of percutaneous atrial appendage occlusion for stroke prevention, specifically in patients with atrial fibrillation.
 
As PLAAO is not a well established procedure in many areas, and has only been available in the US for three years.  The treatment works by adding a device (a kind of expandable frame) which seeks to stop blood clots from forming - s…
 

Power walking for heart rehabilitation

Tuesday 17th April 2012 : Researchers based at Inje University of Medicine in Seoul, Korea, have investigated something simple but important: the benefit of power walking over normal walking in Phase 2 Cardiac Rehabilitation.
 
The study involved two groups, one exercising aerobically on a treadmill by walking in the normal way, and the other adding to that the swinging of the arms whilst holding elbows at right angles (power walking).  Exercise continued for 50 minutes per session, three times a week, for six w…
 

Diabetes Heart Disease Link in Dehli

Monday 16th April 2012 : How strong is the link between heart disease and uncontrolled diabetes?  According to recent reports from Delhi, the two are very firmly linked.  In a five-year study, Dr. Ashok Jhingan of the Dehli Diabetic Resarch Centre reports that some 77% of patients with uncontrolled diabetes required angiography.  Angiography is a diagnostic procedure to detect blockages in arteries.  Further, amongst those with signs of heart disease, 66% underwent angioplasty, 5% heart bypass surger…
 

Surgery for Common Heart Valve Condition in Elderly is Safe, Restores Longevity

Monday 30th January 2012 : For those involved in directing patient care, the following from UPMC is likely to be of interest - especially when it comes to dealing with more elderly patients.  Heartzine's not seen the peer-reviewed paper yet, so do read the following release with that in mind:
 
Mitral valve repair in the elderly is safe and should be considered not as a last resort but as a treatment option for patients over 65 suffering from mitral regurgitation, according to findings of a large, multicenter s…
 

ESC statement: Cardiologists "intrigued" by novel approach to heart failure

Monday 30th January 2012 : The European Society of Cardiology (ESC) welcomes an "intriguing" study, published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, featuring a completely novel approach for improving endothelial function in heart failure.  In the "hypothesis generating" study, ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) delivered significant  improvements in peak post ischemic blood flow in the arm, a trend for improvement in peak post ischemic blood flow in the leg,  but failed to show benefits in ex…
 

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