http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Serelaxin may be more effective for relieving dyspnea in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) than reduced (HFrEF) during the first 24 hours, according to results from RELAX-AHF presented in today's late breaking trial session1 at the Heart Failure Congress 2013. Results were also presented from VIVIDD, the first trial of the anti-diabetes drug vildagliptin in patients with heart failure. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-relax-ahf-positive-hfpef-patients.html Cardiology Sun, 26 May 2013 10:56:22 EST news288784564 Coenzyme Q10 decreases all cause mortality by half, according to the results of a multicentre randomised double blind trial presented today at Heart Failure 2013 congress. It is the first drug to improve heart failure mortality in over a decade and should be added to standard treatment, according to lead author Professor Svend Aage Mortensen (Copenhagen, Denmark). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-drug-heart-failure-mortality-decade.html Cardiology Sat, 25 May 2013 06:50:22 EST news288683408 Living close to a major road may impair kidney function—itself a risk factor for heart disease and stroke—and so help contribute to the known impact of air pollution on cardiovascular risk, suggests research published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-major-road-impair-kidney-function.html Health Mon, 13 May 2013 18:30:02 EST news287658551 Within the past decade, the variability in pharmacodynamic response and moderate antiplatelet efficacy of clopidogrel has raised major concerns, in particular because it is associated with an increased risk for ischemic events in PCI patients. Certainly, the public should have detailed knowledge about the incidence of high on-treatment platelet reactivity (HTPR) and its impact on clinical outcomes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-under-recognised-under-treated-prothrombotic-condition-high.html Cardiology Mon, 06 May 2013 08:28:47 EST news287047719 (HealthDay)—The widely used antibiotic azithromycin (Zithromax or Zmax)—under scrutiny recently because it may increase the risk of death for those with existing heart disease—appears to be safe for young and middle-aged adults without heart problems, according to a large new study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-azithromycin-tied-cv-death.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 02 May 2013 06:00:02 EST news286690324 An analysis of data from the Framingham Offspring Study – a long-term study that follows children of participants in the original Framingham Heart Study – may have answered a question that has troubled individuals considering stopping smoking: do the health effects of any weight gained after quitting outweigh the known cardiovascular benefits of smoking cessation? The report in the March 13 issue of JAMA concludes that the benefits of stopping smoking far exceed any weight-gain associated risk. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-weight-gain-negate-health-benefits.html Health Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:00:02 EST news282318606 Despite high hopes that a blood pressure-lowering medication called aliskiren would help people following hospitalization for heart failure, no beneficial effects were found, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-benefit-bp-drug-treatment-hospitalized.html Cardiology Tue, 12 Mar 2013 11:22:38 EST news282306149 Among patients hospitalized for heart failure (HF) with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF; a measure of how well the left ventricle of the heart pumps with each contraction), initiation of the medication aliskiren in addition to standard therapy did not reduce cardiovascular death or HF rehospitalization at 6 or 12 months after discharge, according to a study published online by JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-combination-therapy-heart-failure-cv.html Cardiology Mon, 11 Mar 2013 14:10:01 EST news282221431 Asymptomatic lung congestion increases dialysis patients' risks of dying prematurely or experiencing heart attacks or other cardiac events, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). The study also found that using lung ultrasound to detect this congestion helps identify patients at risk. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-ultrasound-lung-congestion-dialysis-patients.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:00:01 EST news281289664 (HealthDay)—For individuals with type 2 diabetes, incident cardiovascular outcomes are determined not only by the severity of diabetic retinopathy but also by its progression, according to research published online Dec. 13 in Diabetes Care. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-retinopathy-severity-linked-cardiovascular-outcome.html Diabetes Fri, 25 Jan 2013 11:20:01 EST news278332366 (HealthDay)—In addition to traditional cardiovascular disease risk factors, in patients with type 2 diabetes, coronary artery calcium (CAC) predicts the risk of cardiovascular death, according to a study published online Dec. 10 in Diabetes Care. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-coronary-artery-calcium-cardio-death.html Diabetes Fri, 18 Jan 2013 13:00:56 EST news277736450 (HealthDay)—For patients with polycythemia vera, more intense treatment to achieve a hematocrit target of less than 45 percent correlates with a significantly lower rate of cardiovascular death and major thrombosis compared with a target of 45 to 50 percent, according to a study published online Dec. 8 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with presentation at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, held from Dec. 8 to 11 in Atlanta. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-ash-intense-treatment-beneficial-polycythemia.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:21:06 EST news274378812 If you have cardiovascular disease, a heart-healthy diet may help protect you from recurrent heart attacks and strokes, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Circulation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-healthy-diet-recurrent-heart.html Cardiology Mon, 03 Dec 2012 16:00:02 EST news273758270 Women who develop pre-eclampsia during their first pregnancy (known as preterm pre-eclampsia) - and who don't go on to have any more children – are at greater risk of dying from heart disease in later life than women who have subsequent children, finds a study published on BMJ today. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-child-mothers-pre-eclampsia-higher-heart.html Health Wed, 28 Nov 2012 04:49:08 EST news273300540 Although current guidelines recommend 3 months of anticoagulation treatment after bioprosthetic aortic valve replacement surgery, a study that included more than 4,000 patients found that patients who had warfarin therapy continued between 3 and 6 months after surgery had a lower rate of cardiovascular death, according to a study in the November 28 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-anticoagulation-treatment-aortic-valve.html Cardiology Tue, 27 Nov 2012 16:35:07 EST news273256496 Canadian scientists have determined that routine electrocardiogram (ECG) results for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF)—the most common form of irregular heart beat—can help doctors identify those at higher risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes, including death. This knowledge will help doctors improve the treatment and prognosis of atrial fibrillation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-routine-electrocardiograms-health-patients-atrial.html Cardiology Sun, 28 Oct 2012 03:20:01 EST news270611120 Getting a flu shot may not only protect you from getting sick, it might also prevent heart disease. Two Toronto-based researchers presented studies at the 2012 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress which found that the influenza vaccine could be an important treatment for maintaining heart health and warding off cardiovascular events like strokes and heart attacks. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-influenza-vaccine-heart-disease-death.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Sun, 28 Oct 2012 02:43:56 EST news270611009 Among patients with either coronary artery disease (CAD) risk factors only, known prior heart attack, or known CAD without heart attack, the use of beta-blockers was not associated with a lower risk of a composite of cardiovascular events that included cardiovascular death, nonfatal heart attack or nonfatal stroke, according to a study in the October 3 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-beta-blocker-cardiovascular-events.html Cardiology Tue, 02 Oct 2012 16:00:04 EST news268404232 (HealthDay)—In patients receiving drug-eluting stents, dual antiplatelet therapy can be safely discontinued during the first year, according to two studies published online Sept. 19 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-duration-antiplatelet-drugs-drug-eluting-stents.html Cardiology Thu, 20 Sep 2012 20:30:02 EST news267382961 (Medical Xpress)—Researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania report in a new study that thickening of the heart's right ventricle is associated with an increased risk of heart failure and cardiovascular death in patients without clinical cardiovascular disease at baseline. The study is published online ahead of print in the journal Circulation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-thickening-heart-ventricle-foreshadow-failure.html Cardiology Mon, 10 Sep 2012 07:38:25 EST news266481468 (HealthDay)—Clopidogrel therapy following a heart attack does less to reduce the risk of death in patients with diabetes than in those without diabetes, according to a study published in the Sept. 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-clopidogrel-mi-effective-diabetes-patients.html Diabetes Wed, 05 Sep 2012 17:24:54 EST news266084684 Global platelet reactivity is more effective than responsiveness to clopidogrel in identifying acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients at high risk of ischemic events, according to research presented at ESC Congress 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-global-platelet-reactivity-high-acs.html Cardiology Tue, 28 Aug 2012 11:30:03 EST news265371036 People who are of normal weight but have fat concentrated in their bellies have a higher death risk than those who are obese, according to Mayo Clinic research presented today at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Munich. Those studied who had a normal body mass index but central obesity—a high waist-to-hip ratio—had the highest cardiovascular death risk and the highest death risk from all causes, the analysis found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-people-weight-belly-fat-highest.html Cardiology Mon, 27 Aug 2012 11:59:15 EST news265287545 The first trial to study the effect of platelet inhibition in patients with acute coronary syndromes managed medically without revascularisation has found no significant difference between prasugrel and clopidogrel in the prevention of death, myocardial infarction or stroke. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-prasugrel-clopidogrel-acs-patients-revascularisation.html Cardiology Mon, 27 Aug 2012 10:44:03 EST news265283032 According to new research from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), adding vorapaxar, an investigational platelet blocker, to standard antiplatelet therapy significantly reduces the long-term risk of recurrent cardiovascular events beyond one year in patients with a history of a prior heart attack. Researchers also identify a low-bleeding risk group among whom the clinical benefit of vorapaxar was particularly favorable. This research is presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress 2012 and published simultaneously in the Lancet. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-anti-platelet-therapy-cardiac-events-patients.html Cardiology Mon, 27 Aug 2012 10:10:01 EST news265280273 Preliminary results from the Aliskiren Trial in Type 2 Diabetes Using Cardio-Renal Endpoints (ALTITUDE) do not support administration of aliskiren on top of standard therapy with renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) blockade in type 2 diabetics at high risk of cardiovascular and renal events, according to Professor Hans-Henrik Parving from Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Presenting results from the study today, he said the treatment "may even be harmful". http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-median-follow-up-results-altitude.html Cardiology Mon, 27 Aug 2012 09:52:25 EST news265279939 (HealthDay) -- People with a parent or sibling who died young from heart disease have a much higher risk of developing early heart disease themselves, a new Danish study indicates. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-relative-early-death-heart.html Cardiology Tue, 21 Aug 2012 05:20:02 EST news264741436 According to the United States Census Bureau, approximately one in seven American adults live alone. Social isolation and lack of social support have been linked to poor health outcomes. Now a new study at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) shows that living alone may be a risk factor for death, especially death due to cardiovascular problems, such as heart attack and stroke. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-people-heart-problems-death.html Cardiology Mon, 18 Jun 2012 16:00:02 EST news259249140 (HealthDay) -- For patients with type 2 diabetes, depression is associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality, regardless of previous cardiovascular disease, according to a study published online May 22 in Diabetes Care. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-depression-death-diabetes.html Diabetes Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:20:01 EST news257775087 (HealthDay) -- The new blood thinner Xarelto appears to lower the chances of potentially fatal blood clots in high-risk heart patients, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration review has found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-blood-thinner-chances-clots-high-risk.html Medications Mon, 21 May 2012 21:30:01 EST news256843717