Researchers here have linked an increase in two immune system proteins essential for inflammation to a latent viral infection and proposed a chain of events that might accelerate cardiovascular disease. The same process may be involved in a host of other ailments plaguing the elderly.
Researchers in Brazil have found that treating patients who suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) dramatically reduces early indications of atherosclerosis in just months, linking OSA directly to the hardening or narrowing of the arteries.
Patients in Hong Kong who were newly diagnosed with coronary artery disease had nearly twice the prevalence of colorectal tumors and cancers, with this association stronger in persons who had smoked or have the metabolic syndrome, according to a study in the Sept. 26 issue of JAMA.
Adult women are more than twice as likely to know how much they weighed in high school as they are to know their current cholesterol number, and only half of women have had their cholesterol tested in the past year, according to the results of a nationwide survey released.
A study led by a team of researchers at Oregon Health & Science University has demonstrated for the first time that molecular imaging with contrast-enhanced ultrasound and targeted microbubbles is effective in detecting at a very early stage inflammatory processes that lead to atherosclerosis.
Most of us rely on the bathroom scale to tell us when middle-aged spread is getting out of hand. It might be better to keep a tape measure at the ready. New research shows that adding several inches to the waist?even if body weight still falls within a normal range?markedly increases the risk of unhealthy plaque build-up in the arteries of the heart and the rest of the body.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that a group of liver enzymes called proprotein convertases (PCs) may be the key to raising levels of good cholesterol (HDL-C). The pathway by which these proteins are able to achieve an increase in HDL cholesterol involves another enzyme that normally degrades HDL-C, and was also discovered at Penn.
Researchers at Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, have discovered that deficiency of thiamine — vitamin B1 — may be key to a range of vascular problems for people with diabetes. They have also solved the mystery as to why thiamine deficiency in diabetes had remained hidden until now.
In the August 7, 2007, issue of PLoS One, researchers show how a poorly understood and previously unsuspected mechanism may be the key to understanding how life-style associated forms of oxidative stress, such as exposure to cigarette smoke, damage cells in the lungs.
Starting statin therapy as young as age 8 safely and effectively delays the early artery damage caused by familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), according to a Dutch study reported in the Aug. 7th print issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.