http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. New research shows that women undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), also known as angioplasty, exhibit more co-morbidities and cardiovascular risk factors than men. Risk-adjusted analyses have now indicated that, in the contemporary era, gender is not an independent mortality predictor following PCI according to the study now available in Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, a journal published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-women-pci-greater-co-morbidities-men.html Cardiology Tue, 01 Nov 2011 04:48:54 EST news239341727 US President Barack Obama is "fit at fifty" after improving his cholesterol readings and kicking his smoking habit, according to results of his latest medical exam released Monday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-obama-fifty-medical.html Health Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:42:16 EST news239305330 Visiting a primary care clinician every two weeks was associated with greater control of blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol levels among patients with diabetes, according to a report in the September 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-frequent-office-factors-patients-diabetes.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 26 Sep 2011 16:24:34 EST news236273066 Blocking the uptake of large amounts of cholesterol into brain cancer cells could provide a new strategy to battle glioblastoma, one of the most deadly malignancies, researchers at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-cholesterol-deadly-brain-cancers.html Cancer Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:07:20 EST news235314413 Elevated blood cholesterol levels are regarded as a risk factor for heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases. However, this does not necessarily mean that every cholesterol-lowering drug can also prevent heart attacks. For example, the benefit of the cholesterol-lowering drug ezetimibe is unclear. In particular, proof is lacking that patients have a greater benefit if they take ezetimibe in addition to statins for the prevention of heart attacks. This is the result of the final report published by the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) on 12 September 2011. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-elevated-cholesterol-benefit-ezetimibe-proven.html Medications Wed, 14 Sep 2011 10:45:09 EST news235215866 Among patients who have had an ischemic stroke, use of cholesterol-lowering statin medications is not associated with subsequent intracerebral hemorrhage (bleeding in the brain), according to a report published Online First by Archives of Neurology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-link-intracerebral-hemorrhage-statin-patients.html Neuroscience Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:51:06 EST news235065048 People with high cholesterol may have a higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in the September 13, 2011, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-reveals-link-high-cholesterol-alzheimer.html Neuroscience Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:00:26 EST news235043254 Researchers have undertaken the most comprehensive investigation of genetic variance in human metabolism and discovered new insights into a range of common diseases. Their work has revealed 37 new variants that are associated with concentrations of metabolites in the blood. Many of these match variants associated with diseases such as chronic kidney disease, type 2 diabetes and blood clotting. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-biochemical-discoveries-disease.html Genetics Wed, 31 Aug 2011 13:16:40 EST news234015385 Stroke has generally been considered a disease of the elderly, but the incidence of stroke in children and teens has increased in recent years. The American Heart Association Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics 2011 Data indicate that the unhealthy behaviors that are the risk factors for stroke begin with school-aged children. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-teenage-trend.html Health Thu, 25 Aug 2011 10:08:50 EST news233485715 UC Davis Health System researchers have discovered biological indicators that help explain why some obese people develop chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, and others do not. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-disease-causing-fat-cells-metabolic-syndrome.html Medical research Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:23:48 EST news233410930 The advent of low-cost, generic forms of cholesterol-lowering drugs has shifted the equation in managing lower-risk patients with elevated cholesterol levels, according to a multicenter study led by researchers at UCSF. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-earlier-statin-treatment-cost-effective.html Cardiology Tue, 16 Aug 2011 10:48:58 EST news232710481 New research indicates cholesterol lowering drugs known as statins may help prevent future strokes among young people who have already had a stroke. The study is published in the August 2, 2011, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-cholesterol-lowering-drugs-recurrent-younger-people.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:00:01 EST news231434033 (Medical Xpress) -- A new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology reports that, contrary to previous studies, the use of cholesterol reducing statin drugs does not increase the risk of patients developing cancer. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-link-statins-cancer.html Cancer Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:03:29 EST news230817786 Kaiser Permanente Northern California patients who obtained new statin prescriptions via a mail-order pharmacy achieved better cholesterol control in the first 3-15 months following the initiation of therapy -- compared to those patients who only obtained their statin prescription from their local Kaiser Permanente Northern California pharmacy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-mail-order-pharmacy-statin-prescriptions-cholesterol.html Health Fri, 22 Jul 2011 10:09:04 EST news230547983 (Medical Xpress) -- A strategy that has been shown to reduce age-related health problems in several animal studies may also combat a major cause of age-associated infertility and birth defects. Investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have shown that restricting the caloric intake of adult female mice prevents a spectrum of abnormalities, such as extra or missing copies of chromosomes, that arise more frequently in egg cells of aging female mammals. Their report appears in this week's online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-strategy-infertility-birth-defects.html Medical research Thu, 07 Jul 2011 11:10:18 EST news229255793 Cardiovascular disease (CVD), driven by the global pandemics of obesity and diabetes, poses a daunting challenge to clinicians in the 21st century. Despite progress, there is still much to be done to improve the control of dyslipidaemia, a key risk factor. In Europe, as many as one-half of patients are inadequately treated.1,2 The first European guidelines specifically focused on managing dyslipidaemias offer new hope.3,4 Experts from the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS) and the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) worked together to develop these guidelines. The aim was to keep pace with emerging data and provide up to date treatment advice for a wide range of dyslipidaemias, including diabetes and metabolic syndrome. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-joint-esceas-guidelines-dyslipidaemias.html Cardiology Tue, 28 Jun 2011 07:42:44 EST news228465631 Researchers in Australia have discovered that mothers who smoke during pregnancy are causing developmental changes to their unborn babies that lead to them having lower levels of the type of cholesterol that is known to protect against heart disease in later life – high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-pregnancy-lowers-good-hdl-cholesterol.html Cardiology Wed, 22 Jun 2011 03:31:03 EST news227932238 Among patients who have had an ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA), type 2 diabetes was associated with an increased risk of recurrent stroke or cardiovascular events, but metabolic syndrome was not, according to a report published Online First today by Archives of Neurology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-diabetes-linked-higher-cv-problems.html Neuroscience Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:00:01 EST news227199587 The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health has stopped a clinical trial studying a blood lipid treatment 18 months earlier than planned. The trial found that adding high dose, extended-release niacin to statin treatment in people with heart and vascular disease, did not reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, including heart attacks and stroke. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-nih-clinical-trial-combination-cholesterol.html Medications Thu, 26 May 2011 12:55:21 EST news225633244 Children who are overweight or obese have a significantly higher prevalence of psoriasis, and teens with psoriasis, regardless of their body weight, have higher cholesterol levels, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published online in the Journal of Pediatrics. The study findings suggest that higher heart disease risk for patients with psoriasis starts in childhood in the form of higher cholesterol levels. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-extremely-obese-children-higher-prevalence.html Health Wed, 18 May 2011 13:12:07 EST news224943117 A team of researchers, led by King's College London and the University of Oxford, have found that a gene linked to type 2 diabetes and cholesterol levels is in fact a 'master regulator' gene, which controls the behaviour of other genes found within fat in the body. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-master-gene-obesity-diabetes.html Genetics Sun, 15 May 2011 13:00:01 EST news224506528 Middle school students who were offered healthier cafeteria food, more physical education and lessons about health choices improved their cholesterol levels and resting heart rates, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Quality of Care and Outcomes Research 2011 Scientific Sessions. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-school-intervention-kids-heart-health.html Cardiology Fri, 13 May 2011 16:00:01 EST news224506695 (PhysOrg.com) -- Astronauts anticipate more trips to the moon and manned missions to Mars. But exposure to cosmic radiation outside the Earth’s magnetic field could be detrimental to their arteries, according to a study by University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers published April 6, 2011, online in the journal Radiation Research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-deep-space-heart-woes-astronauts.html Health Thu, 07 Apr 2011 09:58:47 EST news221389115