Heart attack

Diabetes :: Diabetes drugs trials should measure outcomes important to patients

Most clinical trials for new diabetes drugs do not consider the impact medication will have on a patient’s quality of life or other outcomes that are important to patients, such as the risk of developing complications associated with diabetes, according to a Mayo Clinic commentary in the current issue of The Lancet.

Meditation :: Meditation therapy for rheumatoid arthritis patients

A revered contemplative practice for centuries, meditation has recently inspired research into its therapeutic value for everything from anxiety disorders to heart attack prevention. A painful, progressive autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with a high risk of depression—double the risk of the healthy population, by conservative estimates—and various forms of psychological distress.

Heart :: Guidelines help patients reduce risk of cardiac event before surgery

People with heart disease should take special precautions before undergoing any kind of surgery, even noncardiac surgery, to reduce their risk of a cardiac event, according to new joint guidelines from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association.

Blood :: Possible safer target for anti-clotting drugs found

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have identified a new molecular target in the process of blood clot formation, which seems to reduce clotting without excessive bleeding, the common side-effect of anti-clotting agents.

Heart Attack :: Rehabilitation significantly underused after heart attack and bypass surgery

Despite strong evidence that cardiac rehabilitation reduces disability and prolongs life, fewer than one in five people receive rehabilitation services after a heart attack or coronary bypass surgery, according to a Brandeis study in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

Diabetes :: Older blacks and Latinos still lag whites in controlling diabetes

Despite decades of advances in diabetes care, African Americans and Latinos are still far less likely than whites to have their blood sugar under control, even with the help of medications, a new nationally representative study finds. That puts them at a much higher risk of blindness, heart attack, kidney failure, foot amputation and other long-term diabetes complications.