Scientists at University College London (UCL) have conducted the first clinical trial to demonstrate that an intensive treatment for periodontitis (gum disease) directly improves the health of blood vessels. This study, conducted in conjunction with Professor Maurizio Tonetti (University of Connecticut, USA), and reported in the latest edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, may have relevance for the prevention of heart attacks and stroke.

Given that in the year 2000 an estimated 83 million people in the Asia-Pacific region were living with type 2 diabetes, representing almost half of the 171 million people with diabetes worldwide, these findings highlight the huge impact that diabetes prevention and awareness campaigns could have in the area. In Australia alone, diabetes is responsible for 4,000 fatal heart attacks and strokes each year.

Reducing barnyard emissions is one way to help reduce the harmful effects of tiny atmospheric air particles that can cause severe asthma in children, and lung cancer and heart attacks in some adults.

Rats that rode in a truck on the New York State Thruway between Rochester and Buffalo and were exposed to the same highway pollution that motorists encounter, showed a drop in heart rate and effects on the autonomic nervous system, according to a study published this month in the journal Inhalation Toxicology.

The study suggests that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-a highly sensitive technique that provides three-dimensional views of tissue at the molecular level-effectively measured macrophages or white blood cells, in the arterial walls of blood vessels.

Many cancer patients who have heart attacks often are not treated with life saving aspirin given the belief in the medical community that they could experience lethal bleeding. Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, however, say that notion is now proven wrong and that without aspirin, the majority of these patients will die.

Some 50 million Americans have hypertension, that is, blood pressure measuring above the normal range (less than 120/80 mmHg). If untreated, it can lead to heart attacks, strokes, or kidney disease. Lifestyle changes are the first-stage treatment for the disease, but if they fail, medications are prescribed.

Given that around half of the world's burden of cardiovascular disease is carried by low and middle income countries in the region, these findings, published by the Asia-Pacific Cohort Studies Collaboration (APCSC) in the Journal of Hypertension, highlight the immense impact that blood pressure-lowering strategies could have in the area.

Hospital death rates can be reduced by employing more Registered Nurses and the routine use of care maps or protocols, according to a study in the latest UK-based Journal of Advanced Nursing.

A simple blood test for the protein NT-proBNP accurately predicts the risk of heart attack, heart failure, stroke, and death in patients with known cardiovascular disease, according to a study led by a researcher at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

A prospective cohort study of nearly 12,000 men with hypertension found that men who drank moderately had reduced risk of heart attacks.

A gene variation that helps people live into their 90s and beyond also protects their memories and ability to think and learn new information, according to a study published in the December 26, 2006, issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.