Visionaries in the field of cardiac therapeutics have long looked to the future when a damaged heart could be rebuilt or repaired by using one's own heart cells. A study reported in the recent issue of Circulation, a scientific journal of the American Heart Association, shows that heart stem cells from children with congenital heart disease were able to rebuild the damaged heart in the laboratory........ 
Not so long ago, when movies were funny, Dr. Evil used to hold the world hostage. In the first movie, he wanted one million dollars not to blow the world up. By the second movie, he wanted 100 billion dollars not to use his laser to destroy Washington, D.C. In the third movie, the amount [...]
The concept of cardiovascular health reframes important questions regarding how best to approach cardiovascular disease (CVD), which have long been the focus of numerous professional organizations including the American Heart Association (AHA). The AHA Impact Goal for 2010 focused primarily on reducing coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke death rates and the prevalence of risk factors. [...]
The concept of “data mining” lives on. What is data mining? It is the use of large data bases to identify items of interest using data collected for a study to prove a different hypothesis. In the past it has provided some interesting concepts, but in general, the medical public follows the findings with a [...]
This is an interesting twist for us healthcare providers. The American Heart Association is re-arranging the ABCs of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in its 2010 American Heart Association Guidelines for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation and Emergency Cardiovascular Care, published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. Recommending that chest compressions be the first step for lay [...] Heart failure patients admitted to general wards are twice as likely to die as those admitted to cardiology wards, shows a national audit of the therapy of the condition, published online in the journal Heart Women fared worse than men when it comes to appropriate investigations and therapy, the findings suggest, eventhough death rates were similar........ Researchers have identified the first DNA sequence variant common in the population that is not only linked to an increased risk of heart failure, but appears to play a role in causing it. The variant, a change in a single letter of the DNA sequence, impairs channels that control kidney function. "It's not a heart gene," says Gerald W. Dorn II, MD, the Philip and Sima K. Needleman Professor of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and a lead investigator on the study. "It's a kidney gene. This protein is not even expressed in the heart. Nobody has previously considered that kidney-specific gene defects might predispose you to heart failure"........ 
Currently, only 20% of patients who could benefit from cardiac rehabilitation are referred to outpatient rehabilitation facilities. The gap in referral of patients to cardiac rehabilitation represents the largest gap in care for patients following a cardiac event. Regardless of whether the patient had a heart attack, has stable angina, had heart surgery, or had [...] Hypertension - or high blood pressure - is a main cardiovascular diseases worldwide. It leads to stroke and heart disease and costs more than $300 billion each year. Around a quarter of the adult population is affected globally - including 10 million people in the UK and one in three US adults. Published next month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the new findings show that bioactive compounds in blueberries called anthocyanins offer protection against hypertension. Compared with those who do not eat blueberries, those eating at least one serving a week reduce their risk of developing the condition by 10 per cent........ 
Last week an article was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA; 305:43-49). The lead author is an electrophysiologist, and the study was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Given the nature of the discussion, I wonder why it was not published in a cardiology or electrophysiology journal, but [...]
Although statins are known to cause rises in liver function tests after their initiation, they have also been noted to improve liver function and biochemical tests in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, the most common cause of abnormal liver function tests in the developed world.
Athyros et al performed a post-hoc analysis of the Greek Atorvastatin [...]