http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. A common nutritional supplement may be part of the magic in improving the survival rates of babies born with heart defects, researchers report. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-carnitine-supplement-survival-children-heart.html Pediatrics Wed, 08 May 2013 13:23:34 EST news287238206 On April 18th JoVE (Journal of Visualized Experiments) will publish a new video article by Dr. Paul A Iaizzo demonstrating the anatomical reconstruction of an active human heart. The research uses contrast-computed tomography (CT) to allow in-depth 3-D computer modeling of hearts that can be used for prolonged archiving. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-scientists-scan-human-heart-digital.html Medical research Thu, 18 Apr 2013 09:51:41 EST news285497494 (Medical Xpress)—Last week, the common antibiotic Zithromax received a new warning label from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration indicating it could cause dangerous arrhythmias in people with pre-existing heart conditions. Today, researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine describe a "clinical trial in a dish" using patient-specific induced pluripotent stem, or iPS, cells to predict whether a drug will dangerously affect the heart's function. The technique may be more accurate than the current in vitro drug-safety screening assays used by pharmaceutical companies, say the researchers, and may better protect patients from deadly side effects of common medications. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-clinical-trials-dish-reliable-standard.html Medical research Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:40:03 EST news283165743 (Medical Xpress)—Medical students at the University of Arizona are using a new study tool this semester that lets them interact with a real human heart at home – courtesy of their iPads. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-app-med-students-real-human.html Other Thu, 07 Mar 2013 07:50:04 EST news281863372 Technology developed at The University of Nottingham has been used in a breakthrough study aimed at developing the first comprehensive model of a fully functioning fetal heart. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-fetal-heart-ecg-device-breakthrough.html Cardiology Fri, 22 Feb 2013 07:51:17 EST news280741868 The walls of the human heart are a disorganised jumble of tissue until relatively late in pregnancy despite having the shape of a fully functioning heart, according to a pioneering study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-human-heart-tissue-slower-mammals.html Medical research Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:00:02 EST news280605194 Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital have found, for the first time that young humans (infants, children and adolescents) are capable of generating new heart muscle cells. These findings refute the long-held belief that the human heart grows after birth exclusively by enlargement of existing cells, and raise the possibility that scientists could stimulate production of new cells to repair injured hearts. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-human-hearts-cells-birth.html Medical research Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:00:32 EST news277038017 UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have pinpointed a molecular mechanism needed to unleash the heart's ability to regenerate, a critical step toward developing eventual therapies for damage suffered following a heart attack. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-key-gene-regenerating-cells-heart.html Medical research Thu, 20 Dec 2012 10:37:59 EST news275222211 Scientists in Japan have used ostrich blood vessels to create a viable bypass in pigs, raising hopes of easier and more effective artery transplants for heart patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-ostrich-arteries-bypass-japan-scientists.html Medical research Fri, 07 Dec 2012 11:30:01 EST news274099356 (Medical Xpress)—A research team working at Italy's International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology has succeeded in causing heart tissue to regenerate by introducing two microRNAs into damaged mice hearts. The necessary microRNAs were discovered, the team writes in their paper published in the journal Nature, after an exhaustive search. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-micrornas-regeneration-heart-tissue.html Medical research Thu, 06 Dec 2012 07:10:01 EST news273998874 (Medical Xpress)—A fluorescent protein from a deep-sea jellyfish has helped scientists isolate heart cells in the laboratory, creating an invaluable aid to work on heart disease treatments and extraordinary opportunities for stem cell researchers around the world. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-fluorescent-protein-scientists-heart-stem.html Medical research Mon, 24 Sep 2012 06:37:04 EST news267687415 Florida State University researchers led by physics doctoral student Campion Loong have achieved significant benchmarks in a study of the human cardiac protein alpha-tropomyosin, which is an essential, molecular-level component that controls the heart's contraction on every beat. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-yields-firsts-protein-crucial-human.html Cardiology Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:50:29 EST news265632623 For the first time scientists have succeeded in taking skin cells from heart failure patients and reprogramming them to transform into healthy, new heart muscle cells that are capable of integrating with existing heart tissue. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-scientists-patients-skin-cells-heart.html Cardiology Wed, 23 May 2012 04:11:11 EST news256965049 Heart-like cells made in the laboratory from the skin of patients with a common cardiac condition contract less strongly than similarly created cells from unaffected family members, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The cells also exhibit abnormal structure and respond only dully to the wave of calcium signals that initiate each heartbeat. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-scientists-lab-made-heart-cells-ideal.html Cardiology Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:00:04 EST news253973244 New technology increases the length of time that a human heart can remain viable for transplant after removal from a donor for transplantation. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-donated-hearts-longer.html Medical research Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:30:02 EST news248428697 A University of Cambridge study, which set out to investigate DNA methylation in the human heart and the 'missing link' between our lifestyle and our health, has now mapped the link in detail across the entire human genome. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-environment-diet-heart.html Medical research Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:00:01 EST news241715168 Heart disease is the leading cause of death in Australia and now, in a major boost for drug development, scientists will be able to mimic its effects in a petri dish after identifying a new, reliable way of producing heart cells in the laboratory. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-creation-heart-cells.html Medical research Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:29:00 EST news238753725 Rob Evans, a 61-year-old social worker from Apache Junction, Ariz., got the good news on Father's Day: After 3.5 years, doctors had found him a heart and were preparing to bring it to the University of California-Los Angeles, where he was being treated for a slow, steady decay of his cardiac muscle. Evans had been hospitalized at UCLA for six weeks. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-warm-heart-transplants.html Cardiology Fri, 09 Sep 2011 11:40:33 EST news234787208 Stem cell researchers at UCLA have uncovered for the first time why adult human cardiac myocytes have lost their ability to proliferate, perhaps explaining why the human heart has little regenerative capacity. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-scientists-uncover-human-heart-regenerate.html Medical research Tue, 09 Aug 2011 09:38:21 EST news232101479 An international team of molecular scientists have discovered that star ascidians, also known as sea squirts, have pacemaker cells similar to that of the human heart. The research, published in the JEZ A: Ecological Genetics and Physiology, may offer a new insight into the early evolution of the heart as star ascidians are one of the closest related invertebrates to mammals. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-sea-squirt-pacemaker-insight-evolution.html Medical research Tue, 02 Aug 2011 10:40:07 EST news231498505 (Medical Xpress) -- Oxford University researchers have identified a protein that can direct stem cells to become either new heart muscle or blood vessels. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-protein-stem-cells-heart-tissue.html Medical research Wed, 13 Jul 2011 09:32:05 EST news229768301