An inexpensive blood test may identify which heart disease patients are at the highest risk of a stroke or heart attack, allowing doctors to move more aggressively to help them. “We are very good in this country at diagnosing heart disease,” said Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, of the University of California-San Francisco, lead author of the study.
The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions (SCAI) today released a clinical alert advising physicians on practical steps for reducing the risk of a rare but serious complication associated with drug-eluting stents. The document follows hearings held by the FDA’s Circulatory Systems Device Panel. SCAI’s clinical alert focuses on careful patient selection, meticulous stent implantation, and consistent use of medications to prevent the delayed formation of blood clots that can block blood flow to the heart.
For decades heart disease and heart attacks have been viewed as a man?s illness. Unfortunately, nothing could be farther from the truth. Heart disease kills 500,000 American women each year. That is over 50,000 more than the number of men who die of the disease.
New research suggests that the pharmacological effects of taking medications such as statins and beta-blockers as prescribed following a heart attack is associated with living longer, according to a study in the Jan_10 issue of JAMA.
A blood test for patients with coronary heart disease could help predict their risk for subsequent cardiovascular events or death, according to a study in the Jan_10 issue of JAMA.
A simple blood test for the protein NT-proBNP accurately predicts the risk of heart attack, heart failure, stroke and death in patients with known cardiovascular disease, according to a study led by a researcher at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.
Unexplained chest pain after a heart attack might be more dangerous than many physicians originally think. In a case study to be published in the January issue of the international journal Clinical Cardiology, physicians at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia report on a seemingly healthy 55-year-old man who had a silent heart attack and subsequent unexplained chest pain.
Most of us think of chromium as the shiny metal in the bumpers of cars. Chrome bumpers are long gone, but the metal plays a crucial role in human health, reports the January 2007 issue of Harvard Men?s Health Watch.
Men with high blood pressure who have a drink or two per day may be at lower risk for heart attack than men who don’t drink at all, new research suggests.
Use of the drug pexelizumab immediately before and for 24 hours after stent placement or angioplasty for certain heart attack patients did not have any significant treatment effect compared to placebo, according to a study in the January 3 issue of JAMA. The medication had shown promise in preliminary studies.