http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. L-carnitine significantly improves cardiac health in patients after a heart attack, say a multicenter team of investigators in a study published today in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Their findings, based on analysis of key controlled trials, associate L-carnitine with significant reduction in death from all causes and a highly significant reduction in ventricular arrhythmias and anginal attacks following a heart attack, compared with placebo or control. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-l-carnitine-significantly-patient-outcomes-heart.html Cardiology Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:42:36 EST news284989259 (Medical Xpress)—The results of a major, multicenter clinical trial to determine the best treatment for younger patients who have strokes that are potentially due to a hole in the upper chambers of the heart has provided suggestive but not definitive evidence of the benefit of a new heart hole–closure device. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-results-trial-future.html Cardiology Thu, 21 Mar 2013 07:39:56 EST news283070388 German scientists from the Bonn University Hospital successfully tested a method in mice allowing the morphological and functional sequelae of a myocardial infarction to be reduced. Tiny gas bubbles are made to oscillate within the heart via focused ultrasound - this improves microcirculation and decreases the size of the scar tissue. The results show that the mice, following myocardial infarction, have improved cardiac output as a result of this method, as compared to untreated animals. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-microbubbles-myocardial-remodelling-infarction.html Medical research Thu, 21 Feb 2013 10:01:00 EST news280663253 University of California, San Diego bioengineers have demonstrated in a study in pigs that a new injectable hydrogel can repair damage from heart attacks, help the heart grow new tissue and blood vessels, and get the heart moving closer to how a healthy heart should. The results of the study were published Feb. 20 in Science Translational Medicine and clear the way for clinical trials to begin this year in Europe. The gel is injected through a catheter without requiring surgery or general anesthesia—a less invasive procedure for patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-hydrogel-regeneration-functionality-heart.html Medical research Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:04:52 EST news280591485 Injecting specialized cardiac stem cells into a patient's heart rebuilds healthy tissue after a heart attack, but where do the new cells come from and how are they transformed into functional muscle? http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-stem-cells-boost-heart-natural.html Medical research Wed, 30 Jan 2013 10:05:37 EST news278762715 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 Recent research has shown that there are new cells that develop in the heart, but how these cardiac cells are born and how frequently they are generated remains unclear. In new research from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), researchers use a novel method to identify these new heart cells and describe their origins. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-birth-cardiac-cells.html Cardiology Wed, 05 Dec 2012 13:00:19 EST news273929710 The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved a new heart pump for patients with severe heart failure who are awaiting a heart transplant. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-fda-oks-heartware-device-transplant.html Cardiology Tue, 20 Nov 2012 15:56:11 EST news272649361 Structural and mechanical engineers at the University of California, San Diego, are working together to create blood flow simulations that could lead to improvements in the design of a cardiac pump for children born with heart defects. They hope that the design changes will improve young patients' outcomes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-simulations-cardiac-children-heart-defects.html Cardiology Mon, 10 Sep 2012 16:00:45 EST news266511317 (Medical Xpress) -- In a two-day-old mouse, a heart attack causes active stem cells to grow new heart cells; a few months later, the heart is mostly repaired. But in an adult mouse, recovery from such an attack leads to classic after-effects: scar tissue, permanent loss of function and life-threatening arrhythmias. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-heart-early-life-adults.html Cardiology Tue, 31 Jul 2012 06:59:22 EST news262936701 Cardiologists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a noninvasive imaging technique that may help determine whether children who have had heart transplants are showing early signs of rejection. The technique could reduce the need for these patients to undergo invasive imaging tests every one to two years. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-noninvasive-imaging-technique-kids-heart.html Cardiology Thu, 12 Jul 2012 17:43:13 EST news261333784 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 A study conducted at Scripps Health has found that a novel new heart monitoring device helped emergency room patients avoid unnecessary follow-up care. Scripps Health electrophysiologist Steven Higgins, MD, presented findings of the study titled, "Prevalence of Arrhythmias in Emergency Department Patients Discharged Using a Novel Ambulatory Cardiac Monitor", today at the Heart Rhythm Society's 33rd Annual Scientific Sessions in Boston. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-scripps-doctors-device-irregular-heartbeat.html Cardiology Fri, 11 May 2012 15:14:02 EST news255968029 Structural changes in heart muscle cells after heart failure can be reversed by allowing the heart to rest, according to research at Imperial College London. Findings from a study in rats published today in the European Journal of Heart Failure show that the condition's effects on heart muscle cells are not permanent, as has generally been thought. The discovery could open the door to new treatment strategies. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-heart-failure-effects-cells-reversed.html Cardiology Mon, 02 Apr 2012 04:31:06 EST news252559857 Christopher Marshall lost his heart. Most of it, anyway. It was too damaged to keep him alive, so surgeons decided it had to come out. On Feb. 6, in a six-hour operation, surgeons did just that and then implanted an artificial heart in its place. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-experimental-power-artificial-heart-hospital.html Cardiology Thu, 22 Mar 2012 17:10:34 EST news251655019 Heart transplant patients who receive new organs before the age of 55 and get them at hospitals that perform at least nine heart transplants a year are significantly more likely than other people to survive at least 10 years after their operations, new Johns Hopkins research suggests. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-younger-patients-decade-longer-heart.html Cardiology Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:50:54 EST news249576648 (Medical Xpress) -- University of California, San Diego researchers have developed a new injectable hydrogel that could be an effective and safe treatment for tissue damage caused by heart attacks. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-gel-tissue-heart.html Cardiology Wed, 22 Feb 2012 09:20:00 EST news249124790 The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a first mechanical cardiac assist device for children that can help keep patients alive as they await a transplant. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-heart-children.html Cardiology Sun, 18 Dec 2011 06:15:18 EST news243411285 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