http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (Medical Xpress)—Heart and cerebro-vascular disorders represent the two leading causes of death throughout the world. They are sometimes combined in a single patient and their combination represents both a considerable risk to the patient and a therapeutic challenge. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-history-coronary-heart-diseasea-fatal.html Cardiology Tue, 19 Feb 2013 11:20:05 EST news280494678 As blood stem cells age, changes in the epigenome—the system that regulates which genes are switched on and which are switched off throughout the body—alter these cells in ways that lead to reduced immune response, increased anemia and rising risk of certain leukemias, researchers have found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-ills-aging-blood-short-circuited-stem.html Medical research Fri, 15 Feb 2013 09:50:05 EST news280143511 (Medical Xpress)—Platelet disorders are heavily underdiagnosed, little understood and cannot be cured. University of Birmingham researchers and the Birmingham Platelet Group are running a UK-wide clinical trial 'Genotyping and platelet phenotyping' (GAPP) funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF). The trial includes lab research by BHF-funded scientist Dr Yotis Senis in an effort to better identify patients and potentially to develop new treatments. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-mystery-disorders-unraveled-efforts.html Medical research Mon, 11 Feb 2013 07:44:35 EST news279791066 (Medical Xpress)—Cocoa-rich dark chocolate might help protect against heart disease and stroke, but probably more so if you are a man. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-dark-chocolate-good-healthparticularly-male.html Health Mon, 24 Dec 2012 06:07:31 EST news275551640 Immune globulin replacement began decades ago as a treatment for patients who could not make their own protective antibodies, but has proven to have much broader benefits than originally expected. With new uses regularly being discovered for this limited and expensive resource, including as a potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease, now is the time to discover exactly how intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) treatments work, and to engineer a protein that can provide similar benefits, writes Erwin Gelfand, MD, chair of pediatrics at National Jewish Health in the November 22, 2012, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-immune-globulin-therapy.html Immunology Wed, 21 Nov 2012 17:00:17 EST news272739356 The cause of heart attacks or strokes among some patients treated with anti-platelet drugs may be different than for patients who have undergone surgical procedures to restore blood flow, according to researchers at Duke Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-heart-patients-differently-anti-platelet-drugs.html Cardiology Mon, 05 Nov 2012 13:03:07 EST news271342977 Personalized antiplatelet treatment leads to better outcomes than standard antiplatelet treatment in patients undergoing coronary stent implantation, according to results from the MADONNA study presented at ESC Congress 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-personalized-antiplatelet-treatment-outcome-pci.html Cardiology Tue, 28 Aug 2012 11:09:49 EST news265370983 (HealthDay)—For patients with chronic liver disease who require an invasive procedure as part of their routine care, the oral thrombopoietin-receptor agonist eltrombopag reduces the need for platelet transfusions, but also results in an increased incidence of portal-vein thrombosis, according to a study published in the Aug. 23 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-pre-op-eltrombopag-platelet-transfusions.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 23 Aug 2012 15:40:02 EST news264954116 A new investigational platelet blocker reduces the rate of clotted arteries and the need for artery-opening revascularization procedures in the legs in people with peripheral artery disease (PAD), according to new research presented in the American Heart Association’s Emerging Science Series webinar. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-platelet-blocker-blood-clots-artery-opening.html Cardiology Thu, 21 Jun 2012 06:45:34 EST news259479926 A new analysis concludes that rituximab, a drug commonly used to treat blood cancers, leads to treatment responses lasting at least five years in approximately one quarter of patients with low platelet counts and a risk of bleeding due to chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). In study results published online today in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), investigators at Weill Cornell Medical College provide the very first long-term outcome data for patients with chronic ITP treated with rituxamab. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-rituximab-long-term-response-patients-immune.html Pediatrics Mon, 07 May 2012 11:34:39 EST news255609249 A study published Online First by the Lancet reports the successful validation and clinical application of the first point-of-care genetic test in medicine. The test successfully identifies the CYP2C19*2 allele: a common genetic variant associated with increased rates of major adverse events in individuals given clopidogrel after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), thus avoiding complications in those patients. The Article is by Dr Derek Y F So, University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ottawa, Canada, and colleagues. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-validation-point-of-care-genetic-medicine-antiplatelet.html Cardiology Wed, 28 Mar 2012 18:30:01 EST news252152189 Ticagrelor, a potent anti-platelet medication, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the summer of 2011 and is known to significantly reduce the risk of stroke, heart attack, vascular death and death overall in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS), which are characterized by symptoms related to obstruction in coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart. Now, new research from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) shows that the use of ticagrelor not only reduces the time to a first cardiovascular event (the metric used in most trials) but also significantly reduces the time to a second cardiovascular event or death, and reduces total events including cardiovascular death, heart attack, stroke, ischemic events and urgent revascularization. These findings will be presented at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Sessions on March 25, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-ticagrelor-effective-recurrent-cardiovascular-events.html Cardiology Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:10:01 EST news251980805 The anti-platelet drug abciximab, delivered directly to lesions caused by a heart attack, significantly decreased damage to the heart muscle in high-risk patients while clot aspiration showed no impact, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 61st Annual Scientific Session. The Scientific Session, the premier cardiovascular medical meeting, brings cardiovascular professionals together to further advances in the field. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-platelet-inhibitor-size-large-heart.html Cardiology Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:20:01 EST news251973772 Adding vorapaxar, an investigational platelet blocker, to standard antiplatelet therapy significantly reduces the risk of recurrent cardiovascular events in patients with known atherosclerosis, a hardening and narrowing of the arteries, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 61st Annual Scientific Session. The Scientific Session, the premier cardiovascular medical meeting, brings cardiovascular professionals together to further advances in the field. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-class-platelet-blockers-effective-phase.html Cardiology Mon, 26 Mar 2012 09:24:14 EST news251972625 An experimental blood thinning drug made by the pharmaceutical giant Merck may reduce the risk of dying from a heart attack but also boosts the danger of internal bleeding, researchers said Saturday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-merck-blood-thinner-results.html Cardiology Sat, 24 Mar 2012 19:12:54 EST news251835164 (HealthDay) -- For patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) who are treated with aspirin, isoprostanes are overproduced, which is linked with enhanced platelet recruitment, according to a study published online March 16 in Diabetes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-aspirin-platelet-isoprostanes-diabetes.html Diabetes Fri, 23 Mar 2012 14:40:39 EST news251732392 How and when our blood clots is one of those incredibly complex and important processes in our body that we rarely think about. If your blood doesn't clot and you cut yourself, you could bleed to death, if your blood clots too much, you could be in line for a heart attack or stroke. Dr. Hans Vogel, a professor at the University of Calgary, has thought a lot about blot clotting and recently published research in the Journal of the American Chemical Society that helps to better understand the clotting process. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-mystery-blood-clotting.html Medical research Mon, 19 Mar 2012 09:36:38 EST news251368588 Researchers, led by scientists from Johns Hopkins, have found five previously unknown gene mutations believed to be associated with elevated blood platelet counts in African-Americans, findings they say could someday lead to the development of new drugs to help prevent coronary artery disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-gene-mutations-linked-platelet-african.html Genetics Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:29:50 EST news249845383 Highly elevated platelet levels fuel tumor growth and reduce the survival of ovarian cancer patients, an international team of researchers led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer center reports in the New England Journal of Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-high-platelets-ovarian-cancer-patients.html Cancer Wed, 15 Feb 2012 17:00:10 EST news248544367 The relationship of platelet responsiveness to antiplatelet medications; and, the correlation of poor response, and overall platelet aggregation while on dual antiplatelet therapy to the risk of drug-eluting stent thrombosis after 30 days was examined in ADAPT-DES, the largest registry to date to fully examine these relationships. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-day-results-adapt-des-registry-tct.html Cardiology Wed, 09 Nov 2011 16:10:20 EST news240077411 In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have discovered several gene variants contributing to early stent thrombosis (ST), a devastating and often deadly complication after coronary stent implantation in people with coronary artery disease. The team found that three of these variants were associated with impaired sensitivity to the common blood thinner clopidogrel, and a fourth that affects a blood platelet receptor involved in platelet aggregation and clot formation. Analyzing these gene variants will help researchers identify patients at risk for early stent thrombosis and take measures to prevent it. The data also provide a clinical and genomic score that indicates the best predictive accuracy for stent thrombosis risk. The findings are published in the Oct. 26 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-gene-variants-stent-thrombosis-people.html Genetics Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:04:24 EST news238781047 Patients who had undergone hemodialysis using dialyzers that had been sterilized with the use of electron beams were more likely to develop thrombocytopenia (an abnormally low platelet count in the blood, associated with increased risk of bleeding), according to a study in the October 19 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-sterilization-method-hemodialysis-dialyzer-membrane.html Other Tue, 18 Oct 2011 16:24:39 EST news238173872 Scientists at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have identified a way that chemotherapy causes platelet numbers to drop, answering in the process a decade-old question about the formation of platelets, tiny cells that allow blood to clot. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-discovery-chemo-platelet.html Cancer Sun, 25 Sep 2011 16:31:46 EST news236187091 Among patients with acute coronary syndromes undergoing a procedure such as angioplasty, those who received platelet function tests before receiving antithrombotic therapy to determine appropriate clopidogrel dosing and who had high residual platelet reactivity (platelets resistant to antithrombotic therapy) were at an increased risk of an ischemic event at short- and long-term follow-up of up to 2 years, according to a study in the September 21 issue of JAMA. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-platelet-function-antithrombotic-treatment-pci.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 20 Sep 2011 17:00:38 EST news235756819 Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have demonstrated that the circadian system, the body's internal clock, regulates human platelet function and causes a peak in platelet activation corresponding to the known morning peak in adverse cardiovascular events. These findings are published in PLoS ONE on September 8, 2011. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-body-clock-platelet-function.html Cardiology Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:03:23 EST news234781387 Researchers have identified an elusive gene responsible for Gray Platelet Syndrome, an extremely rare blood disorder in which only about 50 known cases have been reported. As a result, it is hoped that future cases will be easier to diagnose with a DNA test. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-anglo-french-team-elusive-gene-platelets.html Genetics Mon, 25 Jul 2011 13:05:37 EST news230817906 Humans produce billions of clot-forming platelets every day, but there are times when there aren't enough of them, such as with certain diseases or during invasive surgery. Now, University of Pennsylvania researchers have demonstrated that a single drug can induce bone marrow cells called megakaryocytes to quadruple the number of platelets they produce. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-drug-soft-environment-platelet-production_1.html Medical research Wed, 13 Jul 2011 10:27:43 EST news229771607 (Medical Xpress) -- Humans produce billions of clot-forming platelets every day, but there are times when there aren’t enough of them, such as with certain diseases or during invasive surgery. Now, University of Pennsylvania researchers have demonstrated that a single drug can induce bone marrow cells called megakaryocytes to quadruple the number of platelets they produce. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-drug-soft-environment-platelet-production.html Medical research Fri, 08 Jul 2011 11:50:01 EST news229342370