Scientists in Bristol have been awarded over £800,000 by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) to investigate the mechanisms responsible for determining whether heart cells live or die following conditions like a heart attack or cardiac surgery.

An estimated one in 20 patients undergoing a common operation to boost blood supply to the heart and to ward off repeat heart attacks may do better if their surgeons also remold the heart to a near normal size, by cutting and suturing together stretched muscle and scar tissue resulting from the initial attack, according to cardiac surgeons at Johns Hopkins.

Women die and get infections more often than men after heart surgery because they tend to receive more blood transfusions, which boost the risks of bad outcomes, according to a study published in the December Journal of Women’s Health.

The amount of blood loss that occurs during major complex surgery is limited by the body’s ability to form blood clots. These close off small vessels and prevent more blood leaking out of the patient’s circulatory system. One problem is that the body also has mechanisms that break down blood clots.

Bristol researchers have identified a heart protection mechanism in mice that surgeons and cardiologists may be able to exploit to improve treatments for patients in future.

People with heart disease should take special precautions before undergoing any kind of surgery, even noncardiac surgery, to reduce their risk of a cardiac event, according to new joint guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association.

Performing cardiac CTA after coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) can reveal unsuspected and potentially significant findings beyond the heart, according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, MD.

A new study on the outcome of cardiac surgery in patients with liver cirrhosis found that the surgery can safely be performed in patients with milder disease, while those with more severe cirrhosis are less likely to survive.

Patients who receive corticosteroids after cardiac surgery have a significantly lower risk of atrial fibrillation in the days following the surgery, according to a study in the April 11 issue of JAMA.

Filtering white cells from donor blood before a transfusion is much safer for patients and long overdue as a national standard for all surgical procedures, according to University of Rochester researchers who present their analysis in the April journal, Transfusion.

The use of medicines to fight cardiovascular disease has been a primary focus of research in this area for the past several decades, as combinations of interventions and medicinal therapy have gradually begun to increase long-term survival rates.