In an era of increasing death and illness from heart and blood vessel disease -- which also can impair kidney function -- Mayo Clinic researchers have designed two promising new cardiovascular treatment approaches. In the process, they have overcome a key technological hurdle that has stymied researchers around the world in the development of new therapies based on clusters of amino acids called peptides.
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Diabetes and high blood pressure, two conditions rooted in genetics and environmental surroundings, play a much greater role than race alone in determining who is mostly likely to develop heart failure, according to the latest study from cardiologists at Johns Hopkins. Each year, nearly 300,000 Americans die from heart failure.
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Use of tolvaptan in addition to standard therapy improves some symptoms and signs of heart failure including congestion and breathing difficulty without major side effects, according to an article which examined the short-term (i.e., up to seven days) effects of tolvaptan.
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A medication used to treat heart failure, , appears to improve some symptoms and signs of heart failure during hospitalization, but does not reduce the risk of re-hospitalization or death, according to two articles in the March 28 issue of JAMA. The study is being released early to coincide with its presentation at the American College of Cardiology's annual conference.
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The health benefits of epicatechin, a compound found in cocoa, are so striking that it may rival penicillin and anaesthesia in terms of importance to public health, reports Marina Murphy in Chemistry & Industry, the magazine of the SCI. Norman Hollenberg, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told C&I that epicatechin is so important that it should be considered a vitamin.
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Fasting glucose levels may independently predict the risk of being hospitalized with congestive heart failure in heart attack survivors and others who are at high risk of developing the disorder, researchers reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
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Including more copper in your everyday diet could be good for your heart, according to scientists at the University of Louisville Medical Center and the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center. Their studies show that giving copper supplements to mice eased the stress on their over-worked hearts by preventing heart enlargement. The study will be published online on March 5th in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.
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Eating whole-grain breakfast cereals seven or more times per week was associated with a lower risk of heart failure, according to an analysis of the observational Physicians' Health Study. Researchers presented findings of the study today at the American Heart Association's 47th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.
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Researchers report that for patients hospitalized with acute heart failure, a higher body mass index (BMI) was associated with a substantially lower in-hospital mortality rate. For every 5-unit increase in body mass, the odds of risk-adjusted mortality fell 10 percent. The finding held when adjusted for age, sex, blood urea nitrogen, blood pressure, and additional prognostic factors.
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