French researchers announced a striking 15% decrease in admissions of patients with myocardial infarction to emergency wards since the public ban on smoking came into effect in restaurants, hotels and casinos in France last January.

Depression nearly triples the risk of death following a heart attack, even when accounting for other heart attack risk factors, according to research presented today at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology annual meeting, which showed that among 360 depressed, post myocardial infarction patients followed for more than six years, those who did not recover from their depression in the first six months were more than twice as likely to die.

Injecting adult stem cells into a heart following a heart attack (infarction) improves the heart function and strengthens the heart wall. The use of such cells may eventually reduce the chance of heart failure following a heart attack.

Persons who reported chronic job strain after a first heart attack (myocardial infarction) had about twice the risk of experiencing another coronary heart disease event such as heart attack or unstable angina than those without chronic job strain, according to a study in the October 10 issue of JAMA.

Geron Corporation today reported its scientists and collaborators have demonstrated that human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived cardiomyocytes improve heart function when transplanted after myocardial infarction.

The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association have jointly released revised Guidelines for the Management of Patients with Unstable Angina (UA)/Non-ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction (NSTEMI).

A report led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) helps explain the origins of cardiac fibrosis, a stiffening of the heart muscle that leads to a variety of cardiac diseases, most notably heart failure.

Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have found that infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is also associated with increased risk of myocardial infarction or heart attack. While rates of several cardiovascular risk factors were also increased in study participants infected with HIV, the increased incidence of heart attack was beyond what could be explained by risk factor differences.

Genetics and family history play a large role in a person's risk for heart disease, but factors in diet, lifestyle and the environment are also thought to influence susceptibility to the disease.

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.