Cardiology Category
Top NEWS Post 2-23-2009
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- Fat Tissue Around Blood Vessels Inflamed By High Fat Diets, This Contributes To Heart Disease
A study by researchers at the University of Cincinnati shows that high-fat diets, even if consumed for a short amount of time, can inflame fat tissue surrounding blood vessels, possibly contributing to cardiovascular disease. These findings will be published in the Feb. 20 edition of the American Heart Association journal Circulation Research.
Top NEWS Post 1-26-2009
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- Drug-Coated Stents Less Risky For Heart Bypass Patients, UT Southwestern Researchers Find
Coronary bypass surgery may carry less risk of serious complications if stents coated with a drug that suppresses cell growth are used in the procedure rather than bare-metal stents, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers and colleagues have found.
Top NEWS Post 11-13-2008
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- Elevated Nonfasting Triglyceride Levels Linked With Higher Risk Of Stroke
Elevated nonfasting triglyceride levels, previously associated with an increased risk for heart attack, also appear to be associated with an increased risk for ischemic stroke, according to a study in the November 12 issue of JAMA.
Top NEWS Post 10-29-2008
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- Osteoporosis Drugs Increase Risk For Heart Problems
Atrial fibrillation can be serious or fatal in those people taking alendronate or zoledronic acid, two common medications to prevent or slow the occurrence of osteoporosis. The analysis showed that 2.5 to 3 percent of patients taking bisphosphonates experienced atrial fibrillation and 1 to 2 percent experienced serious AF, including hospitalization or death.
Post-Cardiac Arrest Syndrome, A Consensus Statement
Post-cardiac arrest syndrome (PCAS) is characterized by brain injury, myocardial dysfunction, and systemic inflammation, often complicated by the unresolved pathophysiological process that caused the cardiac arrest.
Together these processes are associated with high mortality rates. A study of cardiac arrest resuscitation conducted in 2006 found that in hospital mortality was 67% among adults and 55% among children, despite all surviving the initial cardiac arrest.
Top NEWS Post 10-22-2008
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- Heart Attack Patients Benefit From Quality of Care Indicators, Canada
There is a wide practice gap between optimal and actual care for patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI) in hospitals around the world. A 12 member panel was convened in 2007 to develop an updated set of quality indicators for acute M.I. Consensus was reached on 38 quality indicators: 17 that would be measurable using chart data and 21 that would be measured administratively. Of the 17 chart reviewed indicators, 13 address pharmacological and non-pharmacological care. In-hospital mortality was a key outcome measure. It was recommended that hospitals strive for a minimum target benchmark of 90% or greater on process-of-care indicators. Implementation of strategies by clinicians and hospitals to meet target benchmarks on these quality indicators could save the lives of many individuals with acute MIs.
Performance measures are not an end unto themselves, but a crucial step in improving the quality of patient care. These measures were developed by the Canadian Cardiovascular Outcomes Research Team (CCORT) and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society (CCS). This study was published in the October, 2008 issue of CMAJ.
Top NEWS Post 10-16-2008
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- Chronic Migraines Caused By A Hole In The Heart? “Highly Likely,” New Research Says
New research shows that two-thirds of all migraine sufferers have a hole in their heart or a right-to-left shunt. This leads to an abnormal blood flow that bypasses the filtration process within the lungs and may contribute significantly to headache pain. These results were posted early on the 15th of October at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics scientific symposium in Washington, D.C. About 13 million Americans over the age of 12 suffer from migraines as defined by the International Headache Society. These findings dispute the recent 2007 findings that migraine sufferers may be the victims of brain damage.
Cost Effectiveness of Percutaneous Coronary Intervention in Optimally Treated Stable Coronary Patients
A recent study evaluated the relative cost and cost-effectiveness of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in the COURAGE (Clinical Outcomes Utilizing Revascularization and Aggressive drug Evaluations) trial.
Resource use was assessed by looking at the diagnosis-related group for hospitalizations and by current procedural terminology codes for outpatient visits and tests and then converted to costs by use of 2004 Medicare payments. Life expectancy beyond the trial was estimated from Framingham survival data.
The added cost of PCI was approximately $10,000, without significant gain in life-years or quality-adjusted life years. A larger minority of the distributions found that medical therapy alone offered better outcome at lower cost.
Omega-3 Fatty Acids Cuts Mortality and Hospitalizations in Heart Failure Patients
The supplementation of omega-3 fatty acids in heart failure patients has shown improved morbidity and mortality whereas statins failed to show the same beneficial effect in the group of patients being studied. The long term administration of 1 g omega-3 fatty acids reduced all-cause mortality and admission to the hospital for cardiovascular reasons whereas there was no effect on these parameters with 10 mg rosuvastatin, a statin drug.
The study, called the GISSI-HF trial, showed a 9% reduction in all cause mortality with omega-3 fatty acids. Investigators reported “Although this moderate benefit was smaller than expected, it should be noted that these results were obtained in a population already treated with recommended therapies, was consistent across all of the predefined subgroups and was further supported by the findings of the per-protocol analysis.”
