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

Elevated glucose associated with undetected heart damage

2012-02-06
(Press-News.org) A new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests that hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) injures the heart, even in patients without a history of heart disease or diabetes. Researchers found that elevated levels of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), a marker for chronic hyperglycemia and diabetes, were associated with minute levels of the protein troponin T (cTnT), a blood marker for heart damage. The high-sensitivity test they used detected levels of cTnT tenfold lower than those found in patients diagnosed with a heart attack. The findings, which are published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, suggest that hyperglycemia may be related to cardiac damage independent of atherosclerosis.

"Hyperglycemia and diabetes are known to be associated with an increased risk for heart attack and coronary disease and our study sheds some light on what may be happening," said Elizabeth Selvin, PhD, MPH, senior author of the study and associate professor in the Bloomberg School's Department of Epidemiology. "Our results suggest that chronically elevated glucose levels may contribute to heart damage."

For the study, the researchers followed 9,662 participants from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. None of the participants had coronary heart disease or history of heart failure. Higher levels of HbA1c were associated in a graded fashion with elevated levels of high-sensitivity cTnT. This relationship was present at HbA1c levels even below the threshold used to diagnose diabetes. Using conventional tests, troponin T can be detected in 0.7 percent of the population and is associated with heart attacks and death. With the high-sensitivity cTnT test, low levels of troponin were found in 66 percent of the study population.

"Our study hints at other potential pathways by which diabetes and elevated glucose are associated with heart disease. Mainly, glucose might not only be related to increased atherosclerosis, but potentially elevated glucose levels may directly damage cardiac muscle," said Jonathan Rubin, MD, general internal medicine fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He was lead author of the study while studying at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

###Additional authors of "Chronic Hyperglycemia and Subclinical Myocardial Injury" include Kunihiro Matsushita, MD, PhD, and Josef Coresh, MD, PhD, of the Bloomberg School of Public Health; and Christine M. Ballantyne, MD, and Ron Hoogeveen, PhD, of the Baylor College of Medicine.

The research was supported with grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Studying butterfly flight to help build bug-size flying robots

Studying butterfly flight to help build bug-size flying robots
2012-02-06
To improve the next generation of insect-size flying machines, Johns Hopkins engineers have been aiming high-speed video cameras at some of the prettiest bugs on the planet. By figuring out how butterflies flutter among flowers with amazing grace and agility, the researchers hope to help small airborne robots mimic these maneuvers. U.S. defense agencies, which have funded this research, are supporting the development of bug-size flyers to carry out reconnaissance, search-and-rescue and environmental monitoring missions without risking human lives. These devices are commonly ...

Clue Dental Marketing Announces Dental Press Release Giveaway for February

Clue Dental Marketing Announces Dental Press Release Giveaway for February
2012-02-06
Clue Dental Marketing, a Chicagoland-based dental marketing firm, will give away a free dental press release, valued at $199, in their February drawing. Participants can simply fill out a short entry form during the month of February, and they will be entered to win. One dental practice will be chosen as the winner of a free dental press release on March 1st, 2012 at noon CST. Clue states that they are holding this giveaway to show dentists how important dental press releases are for online publicity. A press release is a valuable part of any online dental marketing ...

Being confined to bed…

2012-02-06
Being confined to bed… …can have fatal consequences. Incorrect fastening of restraints and inadequate monitoring led to the death of 19 people in care. Andrea M. Berzianovich and her colleagues, forensic medicine specialists from Munich and Vienna, investigated these fatalities in patients subjected to freedom-restraining measures (Dtsch Arztebl 2012; 109(3) 27). The authors analyzed a total of 26 cases of death while the individual was physically restrained. Three died of natural causes, and one committed suicide. One nursing-home patient died of strangulation after ...

New super-Earth detected within the habitable zone of a nearby cool star

2012-02-06
Washington, D.C. -- An international team of scientists led by Carnegie's Guillem Anglada-Escudé and Paul Butler has discovered a potentially habitable super-Earth orbiting a nearby star. The star is a member of a triple star system and has a different makeup than our Sun, being relatively lacking in metallic elements. This discovery demonstrates that habitable planets could form in a greater variety of environments than previously believed. Their work will be published by the Astrophysical Journal Letters and the current version of the manuscript will be posted at http://arxiv.org/archive/astro-ph The ...

Snoring Solution for Travelers

Snoring Solution for Travelers
2012-02-06
What's worse than being stuck in close quarters with a snorer? Not much, according to anecdotal data gathered by http://www.BrezforLess.com, distributor of discount Brez, which shows noise from snoring is so bad when traveling that many people get two hotel rooms so the non-snorer can sleep. In fact, noise in general is the top complaint of hotel guests, according to a 2011 study conducted by J.D. Powers & Associates on North American hotel guest satisfaction. Even so, the two-room snoring solution isn't always an option when on the road. For example, ...

Lecture or listen: When patients waver on meds

2012-02-06
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Take your medicine, Doctor's orders. It's a simple idea that may seem especially obvious when the pills are the antiretroviral (ARV) drugs that add decades to the lives of HIV-positive patients. But despite the reality that keeping up with drug regimens is not easy for many patients, a new analysis of hundreds of recorded doctor's office visits finds that physicians and nurse practitioners often still rely on lecturing, ordering, and scolding rather than listening and problem solving with their patients. Providers asked about adherence ...

Investigational urine test can predict high-risk prostate cancer in men who chose 'watchful waiting'

2012-02-06
SEATTLE – Initial results of a multicenter study coordinated by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center indicates that two investigational urine-based biomarkers are associated with prostate cancers that are likely to be aggressive and potentially life-threatening among men who take a "watchful waiting," or active-surveillance approach to manage their disease. Ultimately, these markers may lead to the development of a urine test that could complement prostate biopsy for predicting disease aggressiveness and progression. Study principal investigator Daniel ...

The discovery of deceleration

The discovery of deceleration
2012-02-06
This press release is available in German. Pulsars are among the most exotic celestial bodies known. They have diameters of about 20 kilometres, but at the same time roughly the mass of our sun. A sugar-cube sized piece of its ultra-compact matter on the Earth would weigh hundreds of millions of tons. A sub-class of them, known as millisecond pulsars, spin up to several hundred times per second around their own axes. Previous studies reached the paradoxical conclusion that some millisecond pulsars are older than the universe itself. The astrophysicist Thomas ...

Southampton research shows early bone growth linked to bone density in later life

2012-02-06
Researchers from the University of Southampton, in collaboration with a research group in Delhi, India, have shown that growth in early childhood can affect bone density in adult life, which could lead to an increased risk of developing bone diseases like osteoporosis. The study, led by Professor Caroline Fall of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit at the University of Southampton, is part of the University's ongoing work in assessing the causes of common diseases at different stages of life from before conception through to old age, and the ...

DNA test that identifies Down syndrome in pregnancy can also detect trisomy 18 and trisomy 13

2012-02-06
A newly available DNA-based prenatal blood test that can identify a pregnancy with Down syndrome can also identify two additional chromosome abnormalities: trisomy 18 (Edwards syndrome) and trisomy 13 (Patau syndrome). The test for all three defects can be offered as early as 10 weeks of pregnancy to women who have been identified as being at high risk for these abnormalities. These are the results of an international, multicenter study published on-line today in the journal Genetics in Medicine. The study, the largest and most comprehensive done to date, adds to the ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Female bodybuilders at risk of sudden cardiac death

Garment factories are sweltering. These simple fixes could keep workers safe

‘Slums’ of Victorian Manchester housed wealthy doctors and engineers, new study reveals

Winners of Applied Microbiology International Horizon Awards 2025 announced

Most of Wine Country’s agricultural workers have been exposed to wildfires, new survey finds

Obesity-related cancer rising among both younger and older adults worldwide

A 'Rosetta Stone' for molecular systems

What goes up must come down – scientists unearth “universal thermal performance curve” that shackles evolution

Physical activity increases total daily energy use, study shows

National study finds public Montessori programs strengthens early learning outcomes -- at sharply lower costs compared to traditional preschool

National poll: 1 in 10 young children play outdoors as little as once a week

How do people learn new facts?

Exploring how storytelling strategies shape memories

How people process mental images versus real-life visuals 

Blood test could help predict blood pressure after weight loss surgery in teens

Ultra-endurance athletes test the metabolic limits of the human body

Revealing the 'carbon hoofprint' of meat consumption for American cities

Like radar, a brain wave sweeps a cortical region to read out information held in working memory

Resistance to epilepsy treatments may wane over time

Precision reprogramming: How AI tricks cancer’s toughest cells

US physician Medicare program participation and exit, 2013-2023

A direct-to-patient digital health program for lung cancer screening

Belgian scientists discover how cells protect our skin from inflammatory disease – paving the way for new treatments

Effectiveness of colchicine for the treatment of long COVID

Distance to care and telehealth abortion demand after Dobbs

Epidural electrical stimulation for functional recovery in incomplete spinal cord injury

Transformative eye research expands donor pool for corneal transplant patients

Retinal implant restores central vision in patients with advanced AMD, study co-led by Pitt investigator shows

Eye prosthesis is the first to restore sight lost to macular degeneration

Pioneering eye device restores reading vision to blind eyes

[Press-News.org] Elevated glucose associated with undetected heart damage