Heart Disease News and Research

Latest Heart Disease News and Research

New guidelines for the treatment of patients with stroke and TIA

New guidelines launched today aim to help primary care teams deliver effective treatment and secondary prevention to stroke patients.

28 Sep 2004

Master gene that controls the first breath a newborn infant

Researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have identified a master gene that controls the first breath a newborn infant takes. The findings could have implications for treating premature babies and children and adults with lung disease or lung injury.

28 Sep 2004

12% of children at risk of undetected/unreported adverse drug reactions

More than 1 in 10 (12%) children are at risk of undetected/unreported adverse drug reactions (ADRs) according to new research launched at the British Pharmaceutical Conference.

28 Sep 2004

Half of Britons at risk from heart disease

More than half the people tested in a national pharmacy initiative to identify the threat of high blood pressure were found to be at risk according to new research launched today at the British Pharmaceutical Conference.

27 Sep 2004

People with diabetes may soon be able to swap their tablets for creams and ointments

This news will come as a relief for type 2 diabetes patients who are routinely treated with oral hypoglycaemic drugs to lower their blood glucose levels. These can cause severe gastrointestinal side effects, such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.

27 Sep 2004

Guidant announces plans to initiate vulnerable plaque study

Guidant has announced plans to conduct a study designed to increase clinical understanding of “vulnerable” plaques – lipid-rich coronary lesions that suddenly rupture – that may cause most heart attacks.

27 Sep 2004

Research shows specific damage to nervous system in veterans with Gulf War syndrome

UT Southwestern researchers report that damage to the parasympathetic nervous system may account for nearly half of the typical symptoms - including gallbladder disease, unrefreshing sleep, depression, joint pain, chronic diarrhea and sexual dysfunction - that afflict those with Gulf War syndrome. Their findings will be published in the October issue of the American Journal of Medicine and are currently available online.

27 Sep 2004

Researchers have integrated heart cells grown from human embryonic stem cells into a host heart

Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Rambam Medical Center have demonstrated that heart cells grown from human embryonic stem cells can integrate into the host heart and help regulate its activity, becoming in effect a biological pacemaker.

27 Sep 2004

Findings have implications for understanding psychiatric and neurological disease that affect the hippocampus

Spatial memory is more vulnerable than object recognition memory when damage occurs in the brain’s memory processing center, the hippocampus, according to memory specialists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine

27 Sep 2004

Identification of heavy drinkers at emergency departments could reduce further alcohol consumption

Referring heavy drinkers for counselling at the time they attend hospital emergency departments for alcohol-related health problems could be an effective way of reducing subsequent alcohol consumption, suggest authors of a UK study published online by THE LANCET.

27 Sep 2004

Poor performance on an exercise treadmill can mean double risk for heart attack

Among men without heart disease but who have significant cardiac risk factors, a poor performance on an exercise treadmill test is associated with more than doubling of the risk for a heart attack or other coronary heart disease event, according to a report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

27 Sep 2004

Arsenic could be toxic at much lower levels than previously thought

Arsenic could be toxic at much lower levels than previously thought, suggesting that the new EPA drinking water standard of 10 parts per billion might still be too high, according to a team of researchers at Dartmouth Medical School.

26 Sep 2004

Stem cells from umbilical cord blood, given intravenously with mannitol drug reduce stroke size and damage

Researchers first gave the drug, mannitol, to provide temporary passage through the blood-brain barrier then transfused human umbilical cord blood cells into a stroke animal model. When used in the first hours and days following a stroke, stroke size decreased by 40 percent and resulting disability was significantly reduced.

26 Sep 2004

Seroquel is significantly more effective than placebo in treating patients with rapid-cycling bipolar disorder

AstraZeneca has announced important new data at the 4th European Stanley Foundation Conference on Bipolar Disorder, which show Seroquel is significantly more effective than placebo in treating patients with rapid-cycling bipolar disorder and is also well-tolerated in this difficult to treat patient population.

26 Sep 2004

Low paid civil servants were more likely to develop type 2 diabetes

London civil servants at the lower end of the employment scale and with lower social position were more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those at higher employment levels, according to an article in the September 27 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

26 Sep 2004