PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Updated guidelines include new research, advances in stroke prevention

American Heart Association scientific statement

2010-12-04
(Press-News.org) Healthy lifestyle choices and emergency room interventions can help prevent first-time strokes, according to revised American Heart Association/American Stroke Association guidelines. The guidelines, last updated in 2006, will be published in Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. "Between 1999 and 2006, there's been over a 30 percent reduction in stroke death rates in the United States and we think the majority of the reduction is coming from better prevention," said Larry B. Goldstein, M.D., chairman of the statement writing committee and director of the Duke Stroke Center in Durham, N.C. Prior to this, the incidence of stroke may have been increasing, according to the statement that cites a 39 percent rise in hospitalizations between 1988 and 1997. As the population continues to age, the total number of Americans having a stroke is expected to rise. More than 77 percent of the 795,000 strokes occurring in Americans each year are first events. The third leading cause of death in the United States after heart disease and cancer, stroke is a significant economic and social burden and one of the major causes of disability in adults. For the first time, the prevention guidelines address stroke as a broad continuum of related events, including ischemic stroke, non-ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA). For prevention, there is often little difference along the stroke spectrum, said Goldstein, who is also a professor of medicine and director of Duke's ASA-Bugher Foundation Center for Stroke Prevention Research. Accounting for 87 percent of all strokes, ischemic stroke happens when a blood vessel in or leading to the brain is blocked. TIA occurs when the blockage is temporary, but is considered a major risk factor for a later, larger stroke. A blood vessel rupture causes non-ischemic, or bleeding stroke, known as a hemorrhagic stroke. The new guidelines feature several key prevention updates based on recent research: Those who make healthy lifestyle choices — such as not smoking, eating a low-fat diet high in fruits and vegetables, drinking in moderation, exercising regularly and maintaining a normal body weight — lower risk of a first stroke as much as 80 percent compared with those who don't make such changes. The preventive benefit increases with each positive change adopted. Emergency room doctors should try to identify patients at high risk for stroke and consider making referrals, conducting screenings or beginning preventive therapy. Although genetic screening for stroke among the general population isn't recommended, it may be appropriate in certain circumstances, depending on family history and other factors. The usefulness of stenting in persons who have a narrowing of a carotid artery in the neck as compared to an operation (endarterectomy) is still uncertain. Because of advances in standard medical therapies (including a change in lifestyle factors, treating high blood pressure and using antiplatelet and cholesterol lowering drugs) the usefulness of either procedure in persons who have not had symptoms is unclear. Doctors must decide whether to perform either procedure on a case-by-case basis. General population screening for carotid artery narrowing isn't recommended. Aspirin doesn't prevent a first stroke in low-risk persons or those with diabetes or asymptomatic peripheral artery disease. However, it's recommended for those whose risk is high enough for the reduction in stroke risk to outweigh the bleeding risks of aspirin. INFORMATION: Co-authors are: Cheryl D. Bushnell, M.D., M.H.S.; Robert J. Adams, M.S., M.D.; Lawrence J. Appel, M.D., M.P.H.; Lynne T. Braun, Ph.D., C.N.P.; Seemant Chaturvedi, M.D.; Mark A. Creager, M.D.; Antonio Culebras, M.D.; Robert H. Eckel, M.D.; Robert G. Hart, M.D.; Judith A. Hinchey, M.D., M.S.; Virginia J. Howard, Ph.D.; Edward C. Jauch, M.D., M.S.; Steven R. Levine, M.D.; James F. Meschia, M.D.; Wesley S. Moore, M.D.; J.V. (Ian) Nixon, M.D.; and Thomas A. Pearson, M.D. Individual author disclosures are on the manuscript.

NR10 – 1187 (Stroke/Goldstein)

Additional resources: Downloadable stock footage, animation, and our image gallery are located at www.heart.org/news under Multimedia. American Stroke Association Stroke types, warning signs and risk factors My Life Check personal heart score


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Great balls of evolution: UMass microbiologists evolve microorganisms to cooperate in new way

2010-12-04
AMHERST, Mass. – University of Massachusetts Amherst microbiologists Derek Lovley, Zarath Summers and colleagues report in the Dec. 2 issue of Science that they have discovered a new cooperative behavior in anaerobic bacteria, known as interspecies electron transfer, that could have important implications for the global carbon cycle and bioenergy. The scientists found that microorganisms of different species, in this case two Geobacter species, can form direct electrical connections and pass an electric current from one microbe to the other. By cooperating in this way ...

'No fish left behind' approach leaves Earth with nowhere left to fish: UBC researchers

2010-12-04
The Earth has run out of room to expand fisheries, according to a new study led by University of British Columbia researchers that charts the systematic expansion of industrialized fisheries. In collaboration with the National Geographic Society and published today in the online journal PLoS ONE, the study is the first to measure the spatial expansion of global fisheries. It reveals that fisheries expanded at a rate of one million sq. kilometres per year from the 1950s to the end of the 1970s. The rate of expansion more than tripled in the 1980s and early 1990s – to roughly ...

UCLA scientists discover mechanism that turns healthy cells into prostate cancer cells

2010-12-04
A protein that is crucial for regulating the self-renewal of normal prostate stem cells, needed to repair injured cells or restore normal cells killed by hormone withdrawal therapy for cancer, also aids the transformation of healthy cells into prostate cancer cells, researchers at UCLA have found. The findings, by researchers with the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, may have important implications for controlling cancer growth and progression. Done in primary cells and in animal models, the findings from the three-year ...

JACS paper demonstrates continuous and controlled translocation of DNA polymer through a nanopore

JACS paper demonstrates continuous and controlled translocation of DNA polymer through a nanopore
2010-12-04
Santa Cruz, CA, USA and Oxford, UK, 2 December 2010: Research published this week in JACS shows continuous and controlled translocation of a single stranded DNA (ssDNA) polymer through a protein nanopore by a DNA polymerase enzyme. The paper by researchers at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) provides the foundation for a molecular motor, an essential component of Strand Sequencing using nanopores. Researchers at UCSC are collaborating with the UK-based company Oxford Nanopore Technologies, developers of a nanopore DNA sequencing technology. The new research ...

Rewarding eco-friendly farmers can help combat climate change

Rewarding eco-friendly farmers can help combat climate change
2010-12-04
COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Financially rewarding farmers for using the best fertilizer management practices can simultaneously benefit water quality and help combat climate change, finds a new study by the University of Maryland's Center for Integrative Environmental Research (CIER). The researchers conclude that setting up a "trading market," where farmers earn financial incentives for investing in eco-friendly techniques, would result in a double environmental benefit – reducing fertilizer run-off destined for the Chesapeake Bay, while at the same time capturing carbon dioxide ...

Comparison of dark energy models: A perspective from the latest observational data

2010-12-04
Physicists at the Institute of Theoretical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Department of Physics at Northeastern University have made a comparison of a number of competing dark energy models. They have tested and compared nine popular dark energy models using the latest observational data. The study is reported in Issue 9 (Volume 53) of SCIENCE CHINA Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy because of its significant research value. Over the past decade, cosmologists around the world have accumulated conclusive evidence for the fact that the cosmic expansion is accelerating. ...

Study of the high spin states in stable nucleus 84Sr

2010-12-04
The School of Nuclear Engineering and Technology at the East China Institute of Technology cooperated with the China Institute of Atomic Energy to investigate the high spin states of 84Sr. The study is reported in Issue 53 (October, 2010) of the Chinese Science Bulletin because of its significant research value. Nuclei with Z ≈ 40 and N ≈ 45 lie in a transitional region between deformed nuclei and spherical nuclei. There are collective bands in some isotopes of nuclei of such elements as Sr, Zr and Mo, where the structures have single-particle features. 84Sr, ...

Evanescent wave imaging of adsorbed protein layers

Evanescent wave imaging of adsorbed protein layers
2010-12-04
An evanescent wave arises at the interface of two media when light propagates from a more to a less-dense medium under total internal reflection. The wave is distributed over a superficial area because its amplitude decays exponentially with distance from the interface. The evanescent wave intensity at the interface can be larger than that of the incident beam. Evanescent waves have widespread current use in the imaging of chemical, bio-chemical and biological phenomenon. For example, an evanescent wave is responsible for fluorophore excitation in total internal reflection ...

Proposal for the establishment of a new branch within the discipline of aerothermodynamics

2010-12-04
Researchers from the College of Physical Sciences, GUCAS, have proposed to establish a new branch, unsteady aerothermodynamics, within the discipline of aerothermodynamics. The principal objectives of this new branch, to treat by theoretical means the study of physical phenomena relating to attached boundary layer flows, have been outlined in a preliminary investigation. A report based on a feasibility study has appeared in Vol. 54 No. 8 of Science China Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy. Aerothermodynamics, a cross-discipline based mainly on aerodynamics and thermodynamics, ...

Researchers find mathematical patterns to forecast earthquakes

Researchers find mathematical patterns to forecast earthquakes
2010-12-04
Researchers from the Universidad Pablo de Olavide (UPO) and the Universidad de Sevilla (US) have found patterns of behaviour that occur before an earthquake on the Iberian peninsula. The team used clustering techniques to forecast medium-large seismic movements when certain circumstances coincide. "Using mathematical techniques, we have found patterns when medium-large earthquakes happen, that is, earthquakes greater than 4.4 on the Richter scale," Francisco Martínez Álvarez, co-author of the study and a senior lecturer at the UPO revealed to SINC. The research, which ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Development of a global innovative drug in eye drop form for treating dry age-related macular degeneration

Scientists unlock secrets behind flowering of the king of fruits

Texas A&M researchers illuminate the mysteries of icy ocean worlds

Prosthetic material could help reduce infections from intravenous catheters

Can the heart heal itself? New study says it can

Microscopic discovery in cancer cells could have a big impact

Rice researchers take ‘significant leap forward’ with quantum simulation of molecular electron transfer

Breakthrough new material brings affordable, sustainable future within grasp

How everyday activities inside your home can generate energy

Inequality weakens local governance and public satisfaction, study finds

Uncovering key molecular factors behind malaria’s deadliest strain

UC Davis researchers help decode the cause of aggressive breast cancer in women of color

Researchers discovered replication hubs for human norovirus

SNU researchers develop the world’s most sensitive flexible strain sensor

Tiny, wireless antennas use light to monitor cellular communication

Neutrality has played a pivotal, but under-examined, role in international relations, new research shows

Study reveals right whales live 130 years — or more

Researchers reveal how human eyelashes promote water drainage

Pollinators most vulnerable to rising global temperatures are flies, study shows

DFG to fund eight new research units

Modern AI systems have achieved Turing's vision, but not exactly how he hoped

Quantum walk computing unlocks new potential in quantum science and technology

Construction materials and household items are a part of a long-term carbon sink called the “technosphere”

First demonstration of quantum teleportation over busy Internet cables

Disparities and gaps in breast cancer screening for women ages 40 to 49

US tobacco 21 policies and potential mortality reductions by state

AI-driven approach reveals hidden hazards of chemical mixtures in rivers

Older age linked to increased complications after breast reconstruction

ESA and NASA satellites deliver first joint picture of Greenland Ice Sheet melting

Early detection model for pancreatic necrosis improves patient outcomes

[Press-News.org] Updated guidelines include new research, advances in stroke prevention
American Heart Association scientific statement