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Fickle enzyme helps protect, but also can promote heart failure

Enzymes that make the gas nitric oxide (NO) not only protect the heart from damage due to high blood pressure or a heart attack, but also promote heart failure through overgrowth and enlargement of the muscle tissue, say animal researchers at Johns Hopkins.

26 Apr 2005

New statin study shows arrested progression of atherosclerosis

The first study to use cutting edge magnetic resonance imaging to examine the effect of a statin - rosuvastatin (Crestor) - on the fatty plaques in arteries, was presented yesterday at the 75th European Atherosclerosis Society Congress. ORION revealed that rosuvastatin has a beneficial effect on the size and composition of fatty plaques in arteries (specifically the carotid artery in the neck). Fatty plaques that are vulnerable to sudden rupture can cause heart attacks and strokes without warning.

25 Apr 2005

New drug combo helps prevent strokes

A British research team at St. George's Hospital Medical School in London, have found that the addition of the anti-clotting drug Plavix to daily doses of aspirin helps prevent the risk of later strokes better than using aspirin alone.

25 Apr 2005

Increased risk associated with combining carotid artery, coronary artery surgeries

Among patients undergoing evaluation for coronary artery bypass surgery, stroke neurologists are frequently consulted when the patient also has severe carotid artery stenosis (blockage of an artery that supplies blood to the brain).

25 Apr 2005

Simple actions could wipe out heart risks for Asian diabetics

New research, to be revealed on Tuesday 26th of April at the launch of the University of Warwick Medical School's new Clinical Sciences Research Institute at the University Hospital campus at Walsgrave in Coventry, has shown that very simple interventions to target the health care of UK Asian diabetics can almost wipe out the 40% higher risks of heart disease linked to diabetes in that community.

25 Apr 2005

Risk scores may identify young individuals with atherosclerosis

Young people with atherosclerotic lesions may be identified by a risk score calculated from coronary heart disease factors like obesity, sex, age, cholesterol, and smoking, according to an article in the April 25 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

25 Apr 2005

Breast cancer detector that uses electricity instead of X-rays

A painless, portable device that uses electrical current rather than X-ray to examine breasts for cancer is under study at the Medical College of Georgia.

25 Apr 2005

Patient with rare liver condition second ever to survive liver transplant after pregnancy

For Billi Tierney, 30, National Donate Life Month in April has a profound meaning. The first-time mother of Sycamore, Ill., was awaiting anxiously the arrival of her first baby. But she never thought that complications from her pregnancy were going to lead to a week in coma and the urgent need for a liver transplant. Tierney suffered from acute liver fatty of pregnancy, a rare, but serious condition of pregnancy in which there is an excessive accumulation of fat in the liver or liver cells.

23 Apr 2005

Fatness, despite fitness, is linked with cardiovascular risk factors

Body fatness was associated with more cardiovascular disease risk factors even among healthy, aerobically fit men, according to a report today in an obesity-themed issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

23 Apr 2005

Obesity and insulin resistance fuels cardiovascular risk factors in teens

Obesity and insulin resistance are a menacing tag team that fuels cardiovascular risk factors in teens, according to a study reported in an obesity-themed issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

23 Apr 2005

Drinking wine or beer has same result: higher blood pressure

Whether the drink of choice is a frosty beer or a full-bodied red wine, the effect is the same – higher blood pressure, according to research reported in Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association.

23 Apr 2005

Enlarged waist + elevated triglycerides = heart, stroke risks for women

A tape measure and a simple blood test may be the best way to gauge cardiovascular risk for postmenopausal women, according to a report published today in an obesity-themed issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

23 Apr 2005

Obesity sends Type 2 diabetes rates in children soaring

Research results revealed at the Diabetes UK Annual Professional Conference, show 22 children under 16 have Type 2 diabetes in East London alone. Past estimates suggest there were only around 100 children diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in the UK but this figure now appears to be a vast underestimate.

23 Apr 2005

Federal food pyramid redesigned

The US Department of Agriculture has released a new version of the Food Guide Pyramid, the drawing it uses to show people how to follow federal dietary guidelines. The new pyramid has vertical bands for each food group, instead of the horizontal ones used in the last version of the food guide, and includes a figure climbing steps along the side of the pyramid to emphasize exercise.

23 Apr 2005

Scientists have, for the first time, induced a state of reversible metabolic hibernation in mice

Scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have, for the first time, induced a state of reversible metabolic hibernation in mice. This achievement, the first demonstration of "hibernation on demand" in a mammal, ultimately could lead to new ways to treat cancer and prevent injury and death from insufficient blood supply to organs and tissues.

23 Apr 2005

Wyeth victorious in Philadelphia diet drug case

Wyeth has announced that the jury in the cases of Janice Kydd v. Wyeth and Kathy Huber v. Wyeth in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas found in favor of Wyeth. The verdict came at the close of the first (damages) phase of this bifurcated (two-phase) trial.

23 Apr 2005

Do life events precede the onset of heart attacks?

A group of researchers of the University of Bologna (headed by Dr Chiara Rafanelli) has verified in a controlled study whether heart attacks are preceded by stressful life circumstances.

23 Apr 2005

Being chubby means you may be healthier!

A new study is saying that being overweight may not be the killer we once thought it was and the number of deaths each year attributed to obesity and being overweight in the United States is around 112,000 - about one-quarter of the previous estimate of more than 400,000 deaths.

23 Apr 2005

Outbreak of Legionnaires' disease at New York hospital

After four patients contracted Legionnaires' disease at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, the state Health Department says appropriate steps have been taken to safeguard patients and staff from an outbreak of the disease.

23 Apr 2005

Nanoparticles reveal tiny cancerous tumors

Specially designed nanoparticles can reveal tiny cancerous tumors that are invisible by ordinary means of detection, according to a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

22 Apr 2005