Heart failure | Page 21 of 26

Imaging :: Philips’ new 4D ultrasound transducer – cardiovascular images for heart surgery

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI) today unveiled a range of new cardiovascular solutions that supply cardiologists with insightful clinical knowledge for more confident diagnoses at the 2006 American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions meeting. At AHA, Philips revealed the industry?s smallest transducer for 4D cardiac ultrasound imaging in infants and children to help cardiologists accurately view a patient?s cardiac structure and blood flow by improving access to the heart.

Imaging :: New imaging techniques pinpoint heart structure and function

An important first step in using new approaches to treating patients with heart failure – a condition that affects nearly 5 million Americans – requires scientific understanding of the relationship between the form of the heart and function, according to Bijoy K. Khandheria, M.D., FASE, FESC, FACC, chair of the Division of Cardiology at Mayo Clinic in Arizona.

Heart Disease :: PCI for occlusion after MI not always beneficial

Logic would hold that an occluded infarct-related artery should be open before the patient is discharged. But the chair of the Occluded Artery Trial (OAT) presented data here showing that stable patients undergoing routine PCI for occluded arteries three to 28 days after MI had virtually the same number of major cardiovascular events as similar patients receiving medication alone.

Hemodialysis :: Obesity an advantage in MHD patients

Despite significant improvements in dialysis treatments, currently over 20 percent of the 350,000 maintenance hemodialysis patients in the United States die each year. A study published in Hemodialysis International finds that this high mortality rate may be attributed to malnutrition.

Stem Cell :: Repairing damage from heart failure using stem cells

Fiona See, Ph.D., postdoctoral research fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Silviu Itescu, M.B., B.S., will present two groundbreaking abstracts on repairing damage from heart failure with stem cells at AHA this year.

Heart Failure :: A need to find alternative management strategies that improve outcomes, minimize suffering

Mark Russo, M.D., M.S., a researcher at Columbia University’s International Center for Health Outcomes and Innovation Research in New York will present findings from a study of the cost of medical management in chronic end-stage heart failure patients. The study found that despite the terminal nature of end-stage heart failure, costs and resource utilization increased dramatically as death approached.

Drug treats ‘water intoxication’ faster, more effectively

Results of the two largest studies on hyponatremia, SALT-1 and SALT-2, presented Nov. 14 at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions in Chicago, found that the investigational drug tolvaptan treated hyponatremia ? water intoxication — faster and more effectively than available treatments.

Heart Attack :: Late angioplasty after heart attack no better than drug therapy

About one-third of heart attack patients do not receive treatment to open blocked arteries within the recommended 12-hour timeframe after a heart attack. Treatment such as angioplasty or clot-busting drugs may not be given because patients arrive at the hospital too late.

Heart Attack :: No benefit to mechanically opening arteries days after a heart attack

In the days following a heart attack, patients who have no or mild symptoms and undergo a procedure called angioplasty to mechanically open their totally blocked coronary arteries do not reduce their risk of having another heart attack, going into heart failure or dying, according to the results of a new study.

Stem Cell :: Stem cells show promise in repairing heart attack damage

Johns Hopkins scientists have successfully grown large numbers of stem cells taken from adult pigs’ healthy heart tissue and used the cells to repair some of the tissue damage done to those organs by lab-induced heart attacks. Pigs’ hearts closely resemble those in humans, making them a useful model in such research.