Patients fare better at hospitals using Get With The Guidelines-Stroke

American Heart Association meeting report: Abstract 155

2013-05-16

(Press-News.org) People with strokes caused by blood clots fared better in hospitals participating in the Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke program according to a study presented at the American Heart Association's Quality of Care and Outcomes Research Scientific Sessions 2013. "We found that stroke patients treated in Get With The Guidelines hospitals were less likely to die or end up back in the hospital than those treated at other closely-matched hospitals not in the program," said Sarah Song, M.D., M.P.H., study lead author and an assistant professor of neurology at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. "Previous studies have shown Get With The Guidelines hospitals improved the way they cared for people, but this is the first to show how the changes affected patient recovery." The researchers compared 366 hospitals that joined the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association's Get With The Guidelines-Stroke program in April 2004-December 2007 with 366 that did not. They matched facilities by size, geographic setting, teaching status, number of strokes treated and patient characteristics. Comparing the periods before and after hospitals joined Get With The Guidelines, the researchers found participating hospitals improved their 30-day and one-year death rates and 30-day and one-year re-hospitalization rates. During the same time, the non-participating hospitals only improved 30-day death rates. Get With The Guidelines-Stroke hospitals also had higher rates of discharging patients directly home rather than to a care facility. More than 2,000 hospitals participate in the association's multiple Get With the Guidelines programs, which provide resources and tools to help healthcare teams follow the latest research-based treatment guidelines. ### Co-authors are Gregg C. Fonarow, M.D.; Wenqin Pan, Ph.D.; DaiWai Olson, Ph.D.; R.N.; Adrian F. Hernandez, M.D., M.H.S.; Eric Peterson, M.D., M.P.H.; Mathew Reeves, Ph.D.; Eric Smith, M.D., M.P.H.; Lee H. Schwamm, M.D.; and Jeffrey L. Saver, M.D. The American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health partially funded the study. Additional disclosures are on the abstract. Follow news from the Quality of Care and Outcomes Research Scientific Sessions 2013 via Twitter: @HeartNews; #QCOR13. Statements and conclusions of study authors presented at American Heart Association scientific meetings are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the association's policy or position. The association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. The association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific association programs and events. The association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations are available at http://www.heart.org/corporatefunding.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Risk of death, hospital readmission prolonged after heart attack, heart failure

2013-05-16

Heart attack or heart failure patients may have a high risk of death or re-admission for a month or longer after leaving the hospital, researchers said at the American Heart Association's Quality of Care and Outcomes Scientific Sessions 2013. "The risks of death and re-hospitalization can extend well beyond 30 days after discharge, the time period used by the federal government for measuring hospital performance," said Kumar Dharmarajan, M.D., M.B.A., lead author of the study and a fellow in cardiology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, and visiting ...

Predicting risky sexual behavior

2013-05-16

Washington, DC (May 13, 2013) – A recent study by a team of researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas found that risky sexual behavior can be predicted by cultural, socioeconomic and individual mores in conjunction with how one views themselves. Katherine Hertlein of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas will present her team's findings at the 63rd annual International Communication Association conference in London. Hertlein and colleagues surveyed over 800 participants and evaluated elements of the likelihood of one's engagement in high-risk sexual behavior. ...

Fishing for memories

2013-05-16

In our interaction with our environment we constantly refer to past experiences stored as memories to guide behavioral decisions. But how memories are formed, stored and then retrieved to assist decision-making remains a mystery. By observing whole-brain activity in live zebrafish, researchers from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute have visualized for the first time how information stored as long-term memory in the cerebral cortex is processed to guide behavioral choices. The study, published today in the journal Neuron was carried out by Dr. Tazu Aoki and Dr. Hitoshi ...

Stem-cell-based strategy boosts immune system in mice

2013-05-16

Raising hopes for cell-based therapies, UC San Francisco researchers have created the first functioning human thymus tissue from embryonic stem cells in the laboratory. The researchers showed that, in mice, the tissue can be used to foster the development of white blood cells the body needs to mount healthy immune responses and to prevent harmful autoimmune reactions. The scientists who developed the thymus cells — which caused the proliferation and maturation of functioning immune cells when transplanted — said the achievement marks a significant step toward potential ...

South Africa's new radio telescope reveals giant outbursts from binary star system

2013-05-16

An international team of astronomers have reported the first scientific results from the Karoo Array Telescope (KAT-7) in South Africa, the pathfinder radio telescope for the $3 billion global Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project. The results appear in the latest issue of the prestigious international astronomical journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS). Using the seven-dish KAT-7 telescope and the 26 m radio telescope at the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO), astronomers have observed a neutron star system known as Circinus ...

Vicious cycle: Obesity sustained by changes in brain biochemistry

2013-05-16

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — With obesity reaching epidemic levels in some parts of the world, scientists have only begun to understand why it is such a persistent condition. A study in the Journal of Biological Chemistry adds substantially to the story by reporting the discovery of a molecular chain of events in the brains of obese rats that undermined their ability to suppress appetite and to increase calorie burning. It's a vicious cycle, involving a breakdown in how brain cells process key proteins, that allows obesity to beget further obesity. But in a finding ...

Who's your daddy?

2013-05-16

Depending on the species, males have different strategies. They may try to ensure paternity by increased surveillance and fighting off the competition, or by having more frequent sex with their long-term partners. Others react by physically punishing unfaithful females or by reducing parental care once the – potentially unrelated – offspring has arrived. Herbert Hoi and colleagues of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, together with scientists from the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, carried out experiments with reed warblers to see how a situation of ...

Actor Johnny Depp immortalized in ancient fossil find

2013-05-16

A scientist has discovered an ancient extinct creature with 'scissor hand-like' claws in fossil records and has named it in honour of his favourite movie star. The 505 million year old fossil called Kooteninchela deppi (pronounced Koo-ten-ee-che-la depp-eye), which is a distant ancestor of lobsters and scorpions, was named after the actor Johnny Depp for his starring role as Edward Scissorhands - a movie about an artificial man named Edward, an unfinished creation, who has scissors for hands. Kooteninchela deppi is helping researchers to piece together more information ...

Carbon in a twirl: The science behind a self-assembled nano-carbon helix

2013-05-16

This news release is available in German. Nanomaterials exhibit unique properties that can only unfold when the structures of the material are very small – that is, at the nanoscale. In order to exploit these special properties such as, for example, specific quantum effects it is very important to produce predefined nanostructures in a controlled way and interpret the formation of their shape. Scientists try to understand how to initiate and control the growth of nanomaterials and are exploring different ways to design and build up nanostructures with fine control ...

Work-related stress linked to increased blood fat levels

2013-05-16

Spanish researchers have studied how job stress affects cardiovascular health. The results, published in the 'Scandinavian Journal of Public Health', link this situation to dyslipidemia, a disorder that alters the levels of lipids and lipoproteins in the blood. Experts have been saying for years that emotional stress is linked to the risk of suffering cardiovascular disease as a result of unhealthy habits such as smoking, an unsuitable diet or leading a sedentary lifestyle, among other factors. Now, a study conducted by the Sociedad de Prevención de Ibermutuamur, in ...

Patients fare better at hospitals using Get With The Guidelines-Stroke

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: