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A small tick that feeds on the blood of it’s victims could play a vital future role in the fight against high blood pressure and heart disease.
Each year over a quarter of a million people in the United Kingdom suffer from a heart attack, and coronary artery disease continues to claim the most lives [...]
It has long been a goal of doctors, not drug companies, to make a pill that combines multiple medications that can be taken once a day. When I was in school, we named it “Wonderall.” This concept vastly increases compliance and it is hoped would prevent “events.”
The drugs in these pills are generic drugs that we have [...]
Exercise is good for your heart, right? Perhaps just up to a point. Long-term marathon runners develop more plaque build-up in their heart arteries compared to less active folks, according to investigators reporting at the 2010 Scientific Session of the...
In our land of plenty, one could spend a considerable amount of time bemoaning the waste that goes on in medicine. One of the areas where this is least apparent is that of devices and what their “shelf life” is. We all know that milk expires and generally doesn’t taste good. Meat spoils and lettuce [...]
The results of a major clinical study carried out at the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) by Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif are now available in the journal Circulation Cardiovascular Imaging Dr. Tardif is a heart specialist and director of the MHI Research Centre, as well as a professor in the faculty of medicine and holder of the atherosclerosis research chair at the Universit de Montral........ 
The use of the Impella device has significantly expanded what can be done in the cath lab, while at the same time significantly increasing the safety of some angioplasty procedures.
Let me give you some examples of recent cases that I have done with the help of my surgical colleagues. An 88-year-old man, who I have [...]Heart attack rates declined dramatically - by 20% - during a recent five-year period, according to Yale and Harvard researchers. Rates declined for both men and women in the Medicare population, which is generally everyone in the U.S. over 65...
Medicine in general moves slowly in fits and starts until the rough spots are smoothed out. At times, physicians can use a drug for years, and only after it’s been around for so long that it’s almost off of patent, we come to find out we don’t even know how to dose it, Plavix anyone? At other [...]Contrary to popular belief, fruit and vegetable consumption does not seem to reduce the risk of heart attacks, according to a recent scientific literature review by French epidemiologists. And did you hear about the recent study that found no overall...
Technology now aids cardiologists in making decisions as to which patients may or may not have coronary artery disease. In the past, this was quite difficult and led to many needless tests and the repetition of tests that provided no value to patient care. As the readers of my blogs know, many pieces of a [...]One type of food has consistently been associated with lower risk of heart attacks and strokes: whole grains. Heart disease, specifically coronary heart disease, is the leading cause of death in the developed world. Strokes are the No.3 killer, after...
The mechanisms by which raised blood pressure causes stroke and other vascular events are poorly understood. Although substantial variability in clinical blood pressure is often noted, episodic hypertension tends not to be treated. The prognostic value of visit-to-visit variability and episodic hypertension in the same setting has not been established. Therefore in this study the risk [...]