SAN DIEGO (March 16, 2015) -- Patients over age 80 with acute coronary syndromes would likely benefit from more invasive tests and therapies that may otherwise be denied them due to their age, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session in San Diego. The study focused on treatment approaches for older patients with non ST-elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI, a type of heart attack that is milder in the acute phase but has a poor prognosis after six months or more) or the closely-related condition unstable ...

Patients with acute coronary syndrome undergoing angioplasty who received the anticoagulant drug bivalirudin did not show significant improvements in either of two co-primary endpoints--a composite of rate of death, heart attack or stroke at 30 days, or a composite of those events plus major bleeding--as compared to patients receiving standard anticoagulation therapy, according to a study presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session. However, bivalirudin was associated with significantly lower rates of bleeding complications and death, ...

SAN DIEGO (March 16, 2015) -- Patients with acute coronary syndrome undergoing coronary angiogram, a procedure used to assess blockages in the heart's arteries, had a significantly lower risk of major bleeding and death if their interventional cardiologist accessed the heart through an artery in the arm rather than the groin, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session. Study authors said the results should prompt a re-evaluation of clinical guidelines and that the arm, currently used in a minority of cases in the ...

A 3D printing technology developed by Silicon Valley startup, Carbon3D Inc., enables objects to rise from a liquid media continuously rather than being built layer by layer as they have been for the past 25 years, representing a fundamentally new approach to 3D printing. The technology, to appear as the cover article in the March 20 print issue of Science, allows ready-to-use products to be made 25 to 100 times faster than other methods and creates previously unachievable geometries that open opportunities for innovation not only in health care and medicine, but also in ...

Anesthetics have been used in surgical procedures for more than 150 years, but the mechanisms by which inhaled anesthesia actually work are poorly understood. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine have discovered that anesthetics bind to and interfere with certain proteins in excitatory neurons, which are necessary for these neurons to transmit signals involved in anesthesia and the perception of pain. "Our discovery may be an important component of the mechanism of anesthesia and -- because this particular protein is also involved in neuronal development -- could ...

PHILADELPHIA, PA - March 17, 2015- Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University and the National Institutes of Health are building on their research which seeks to understand why joint infections persist despite standards of care designed to stop them. More Americans than ever will receive joint replacements, and with an infection rate of approximately 1 percent, the potential exists for tens of thousands to experience post-operative infection and complications each year. "In this study, we decided to find out if pre-operative, prophylactic antibiotic concentrations in ...

When viruses such as influenza and Ebola jump from one species to another, their ability to cause harm can change dramatically, but research from the University of Cambridge shows that it may be possible to predict the virus's virulence by looking at how deadly it is in closely-related species. A number of emerging infectious diseases - including some of the most deadly outbreaks such as Ebola, SARS and HIV - are the result of humans becoming infected with a pathogen that normally infects another species. The amount of harm caused by a pathogen when it jumps into a new ...

NEW YORK, NY - March 13, 2015 - Data from a meta-analysis published today in The Lancet found that extended duration dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) after drug-eluting stent (DES) implantation was associated with significantly higher rates of mortality compared to shorter DAPT. The optimal duration of DAPT has been a matter of debate since the introduction of DES. A meta-analysis using multiple analytical approaches to investigate mortality and other clinical outcomes with different DAPT strategies was conducted. Researchers examined 31,666 patients from 10 randomized ...

NEW YORK, NY - March 16, 2015 - Data from the BRIGHT trial published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association demonstrated that bivalirudin was superior to both heparin monotherapy and heparin plus tirofiban for patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Findings were first reported at last year's Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT), the annual scientific symposium of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF). There has been recent controversy surrounding the optimal anticoagulant ...

Sawflies belong to the same insect group as wasps, bees and ants. Unlike many of the latter, sawflies seldom make themselves conspicuous to humans, although the young stages (larvae) of some species, nearly all of which feed on plants, sometimes attract attention by damaging these. In a reversal of the pattern found in most insect groups, a larger number of sawfly species occur in regions with a cooler climate, rather than in the tropics. On the other hand, many of the sawflies found in Africa south of the Sahara (the Afrotropical faunal region) belong to genera that ...

Chicago, March 17, 2015 - Patients with severe mitral regurgitation (MR) often suffer from psycho-emotional symptoms, such as depression and anxiety, but after undergoing mitral valve repair surgery patients experience a marked improvement in emotional and physical wellbeing, according to an article in the March 2015 issue of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery. Key points Patients with severe mitral regurgitation, who had suffered from anxiety and post-traumatic stress symptoms prior to mitral valve surgery, experienced a marked improvement in emotional and physical ...

Cod liver oil and willow bark extract used in the tanning of skins for clothing and other products offer notable differences in treatment, a study by a team of scientists shows. Their findings show the promise of a technique that may be used to identify the aging behavior of materials and to examine delicate works of art. The research, which appears in the journal Analytical Chemistry, relies on a method employing nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, or NMR spectroscopy, which reveals the physical and chemical properties of atoms in a given substance, as well as the ...

A research team led by Northwestern University nanomedicine expert Chad A. Mirkin and Sergei Gryaznov of AuraSense Therapeutics is the first to show spherical nucleic acids (SNAs) can be used as potent drugs to effectively train the immune system to fight disease, by either boosting or dampening the immune response. The initial treatment triggers a cell-specific immune response all over the body. By increasing the body's immune response toward a specific cell type, SNAs could be used to target anything from influenza to different forms of cancer. They also can be used ...

New heart imaging technology to diagnose coronary heart disease and other heart disorders is significantly more accurate, less expensive and safer than traditional methods, according to a new study by researchers from the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City. Researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute compared Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), currently the most commonly used imaging diagnostic tool, with a new imaging technology -- coronary-specific Positron Emission Tomography (cardiac PET/CT). They ...

A recently published global genome study that used the data-intensive Gordon supercomputer at the San Diego Supercomputer at the University of California, San Diego, has researchers rethinking how avian lineages diverged after the extinction of the dinosaurs. The four-year project, called the Avian Genome Consortium and published in the journal Science, resulted in a new family "tree" for nearly all of the 10,000 species of birds alive today by comparing the entire DNA codes (genomes) of 48 species as varied as parrot, penguin, downy woodpecker, and Anna's hummingbird. ...

SAN DIEGO (March 16, 2015) -- Patients who experience the deadliest form of heart attack--ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI)--and suffer from substantial narrowing in multiple heart arteries may benefit from receiving angioplasty in constricted arteries not affected by the heart attack, thereby reducing the need for future angioplasty, according to research presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session. The study is the largest prospective, controlled trial to evaluate whether patients should receive preventive angioplasty, ...

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Specific system-level factors controlled by health care systems - including prescriptions with a medication supply greater than 90 days, mail-order pharmacy use, and lower copayments and out-of-pocket maximums - nearly doubled the likelihood that patients adhered to prescribed heart and diabetes medications, according to a new study published in the journal Medical Care. "This study is the first to look at all four of these system-level factors at once in the senior population," said Julie A. Schmittdiel, PhD, research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente ...

If you're a fan of food television, it's fine to be entertained by the programming, but if you take recipes for the rich meals the networks favor into your own kitchen, you're at risk of putting on pounds, according to a study just published online by the journal Appetite. "The message is clear," said Lizzy Pope of the University of Vermont, the study's lead author. "Food TV should be a viewing experience only, not a cooking experience." The study asked 501 women, aged 20 to 35, where they obtained information about new foods, how frequently they cooked from scratch, ...

Healthy bone is continuously involved in a dynamic process that includes bone deposition and bone resorption. However, when a person has cancer that spreads to the bone and bone marrow, the tissue becomes increasingly fragile, and this process is disrupted, usually leading to increased bone resorption. In an early online edition in advance of publication in the International Journal of Cancer, investigators at Children's Hospital Los Angeles reported a surprising discovery - when neuroblastoma (NB) cells metastasize to the bone, there initially occurs an increase in bone ...

Berkeley -- Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, are developing a new type of bandage that does far more than stanch the bleeding from a paper cut or scraped knee. Thanks to advances in flexible electronics, the researchers, in collaboration with colleagues at UC San Francisco, have created a new "smart bandage" that uses electrical currents to detect early tissue damage from pressure ulcers, or bedsores, before they can be seen by human eyes - and while recovery is still possible. "We set out to create a type of bandage that could detect bedsores as ...

UNSW Australia scientists have developed a highly efficient oxygen-producing electrode for splitting water that has the potential to be scaled up for industrial production of the clean energy fuel, hydrogen. The new technology is based on an inexpensive, specially coated foam material that lets the bubbles of oxygen escape quickly. "Our electrode is the most efficient oxygen-producing electrode in alkaline electrolytes reported to date, to the best of our knowledge," says Associate Professor Chuan Zhao, of the UNSW School of Chemistry. "It is inexpensive, sturdy and simple ...

Tuesday, March 17, 2015. Just like milk and many other foods, blood used for transfusions is perishable. But contrary to popular belief, new research shows that blood stored for three weeks is just as good as fresh blood - findings published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. The large clinical trial provides reassuring evidence about the safety of blood routinely transfused to critically ill patients. Supported by the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group and countless nurses, blood bank technologists, transfusion medicine and critical care physicians, Drs. ...

Ann Arbor, MI, March 17, 2015 -- Suicide is responsible for more than 36,000 deaths in the United States and nearly 1 million deaths worldwide annually. In 2009, suicides surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death by injury in the U.S. A new study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine analyzes the upward trend of suicides that take place in the workplace and identifies specific occupations in which individuals are at higher risk. The highest workplace suicide rate is in protective services occupations (5.3 per 1 million), more than ...

(Chicago) - Just as humans will travel to their favorite restaurant, chimpanzees will travel a farther distance for preferred food sources in non-wild habitats, according to a new study from scientists at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo that publishes on March 17 in the journal PeerJ. Chimpanzees at Lincoln Park Zoo prefer grapes over carrots. Previous research at the zoo provided that insight into food preferences. Now, a 15-month study, led by Lydia Hopper, PhD of the Lester Fisher Center for the Study and Conservation of Apes at Lincoln Park Zoo, suggests that the apes ...

Toronto, ON (March 17, 2015) - A comprehensive study examining clinical trials of more than 95,000 patients has found that glucose or sugar-lowering medications prescribed to patients with diabetes may pose an increased risk for the development of heart failure in these patients. "Patients randomized to new or more intensive blood sugar-lowering drugs or strategies to manage diabetes showed an overall 14 per cent increased risk for heart failure," says Dr. Jacob Udell, the study's principal investigator, and cardiologist at the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre, University Health ...