Researchers at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease have discovered a key switch that makes stem cells turn into the type of muscle cells that reside in the wall of blood vessels. The same switch might be used in the future to limit growth of vascular muscle cells that cause narrowing of arteries leading to heart attacks and strokes, limit formation of blood vessels that feed cancers, or make new blood vessels for organs that are not getting enough blood flow.

Several studies have suggested there is a connection between organisms that cause gum disease, known scientifically as periodontal disease, and the development of heart disease, but few studies have tested this theory.

Researchers at University College London and St George's, University of London measured recent exposure to tobacco smoke in non-smoking middle-aged men taking part in the British Regional Heart Study by measuring the levels of cotinine - a compound carried in the blood - at two time points 20 years apart.

The severity of first heart attacks has dropped significantly in the United States — propelling a decline in coronary heart disease deaths, researchers reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) are three times as likely to experience severe coronary events—including heart attacks—than people without the disease, according to a recent study that analyzed the risk of cardiovascular disease in nearly 1,000 patients with IPF and more than 3,500 matched controls.

Having discovered how a lowly, single-celled fungus regulates its version of cholesterol, Johns Hopkins researchers are gaining new insight about the target and action of cholesterol-lowering drugs taken daily by millions of people to stave off heart attacks and strokes. Their work appears in the December issue of Cell Metabolism.

The prevention of progression of arterial disease and diabetes: a factorial randomized placebo controlled trial of aspirin and antioxidants in patients with diabetes and asymptomatic peripheral arterial disease

A gene that can cause the heart to become enlarged, greatly increasing the risk of heart attacks and heart failure, is identified today in a new study.

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have for the first time used drug-treated blood stem cells to repair heart damage in an animal model, results that might point to methods for healing injuries from heart attacks or disease.

OHSU, Washington University researchers have identified the mechanism that makes a bioengineered enzyme function efficiently, opening the way to clinical development of the first safe clot busting agent for treating heart attacks and strokes

Patients prescribed drugs to treat rheumatoid arthritis could be at a reduced risk of heart attacks and strokes, according to a study published today in the open access journal Arthritis Research & Therapy.

More than half of all heart problems in Sweden could be avoided if Swedes lived more healthily.