Hospital admissions for acute aortic dissection were highest during peak flu season November-March, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. Acute aortic dissection (AAD) is a life-threatening condition in which blood leaks from the aorta, the major artery that carries blood from the heart to the body. The leak is often caused by a tear in the inside wall of the aorta. The most common symptom of aortic dissection is sudden and severe chest or upper back pain. Researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center ...

Maintaining a healthy heart while young may help prevent future disease and disability, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. In this study spanning more than three decades, participants who were at low risk for heart and blood vessel disease when young adults were 60 percent less likely to report disability as older adults. To determine risk level, researchers used blood pressure, cholesterol and body mass index measurements, as well as diabetes and smoking status. "People should adopt and maintain a healthy lifestyle ...

High blood pressure control continues to improve in the United States, with more than half of those with the condition now achieving readings below 140/90 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg), according to new research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014 and simultaneously published in the American Heart Association's journal Hypertension. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 2003 and 2012, researchers found: The percentage of patients with hypertension achieving optimal blood pressure ...

WASHINGTON -- Menthol acts in combination with nicotine to desensitize receptors in lungs' airways that are responsible for nicotine's irritation, say neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC). "We know that a menthol cough drop soothes a scratchy, sore throat. The question we looked at is if and how it works when the irritant is nicotine," says a study author, Kenneth Kellar, PhD, a professor of pharmacology at GUMC. The findings, which represent work by Georgetown University investigators in GUMC's Department of Pharmacology & Physiology, will ...

In 2013, University of North Carolina School of Medicine researchers published a study with a surprising finding: Patients who suffered an ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) heart attack while in the hospital for something else are more likely to die than patients who had the same type of heart attack outside the hospital. Today the UNC researchers published a new study, based on data from more than 62,000 patients treated at hundreds of hospitals in California, which confirms their earlier finding. "This study is the largest ever performed on patients who ...

Prashant Kaul, M.D., of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and colleagues conducted a study to define the incidence and treatment and outcomes of patients who experience a certain type of heart attack during hospitalization for conditions other than acute coronary syndromes. The study appears in the November 19 issue of JAMA, a cardiovascular disease theme issue. Early restoration of blood flow with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI; a procedure such as stent placement used to open narrowed coronary arteries) or administration of medication to dissolve ...

Matthew D. Ritchey, D.P.T., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, and colleagues examined the contributions of heart disease subtypes to overall heart disease mortality trends during 2000-2010. The study appears in the November 19 issue of JAMA, a cardiovascular disease theme issue. Despite considerable information on overall heart disease (HD) and coronary HD (CHD) mortality trends, less is known about trends for other HD subtypes. The researchers analyzed mortality data from the CDC WONDER database, which contains death certificate information ...

Vivek Y. Reddy, M.D., of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, and colleagues examined the long-term efficacy and safety, compared to warfarin, of a device to achieve left atrial appendage closure in patients with atrial fibrillation. The study appears in the November 19 issue of JAMA, a cardiovascular disease theme issue. The left atrial appendage (LAA) is a pouch-like appendix located in the upper left chamber of the heart. Studies have suggested that the LAA is the major source of clots that block blood vessels in patients with atrial fibrillation ...

Lars H. Lund, M.D., Ph.D., of the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues conducted a study to examine whether beta-blockers are associated with reduced mortality in heart failure patients with preserved ejection fraction (a measure of how well the left ventricle of the heart pumps with each contraction).The study appears in the November 19 issue of JAMA, a cardiovascular disease theme issue. Up to half of patients with heart failure have normal or near-normal ejection fraction, termed heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFPEF). The risk of ...

Duk-Woo Park, M.D., of the University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea, and Manesh R. Patel, M.D., of the Duke Clinical Research Institute, Durham, N.C., and colleagues investigated the incidence, extent, and location of obstructive non-infarct-related artery (IRA) disease and compared 30-day mortality according to the presence of non-IRA disease in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI; a certain pattern on an electrocardiogram following a heart attack). Obstructive non-IRA disease is blockage in arteries not believed to be the cause ...

Stefanie Schulz-Schupke, M.D., of the Deutsches Herzzentrum Munchen, Technische Universitat, Munich, Germany and colleagues assessed whether vascular closure devices are noninferior (not worse than) to manual compression in terms of access site-related vascular complications in patients undergoing diagnostic coronary angiography. The study appears in the November 19 issue of JAMA, a cardiovascular disease theme issue. Percutaneous (through the skin) coronary angiography and interventions have become a cornerstone in the diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease. ...

Giulio Conte, M.D., of the Heart Rhythm Management Centre, UZ Brussel-VUB, Brussels, Belgium and colleagues investigated the clinical significance of repeat testing after puberty in asymptomatic children with a family history of Brugada syndrome who had an initial negative test earlier in childhood. Brugada syndrome is a genetic disease that is characterized by abnormal electrocardiogram findings without structural heart disease and an increased risk of sudden cardiac death. The study appears in the November 19 issue of JAMA, a cardiovascular disease theme issue. Brugada ...

DURHAM, N.C. - A blocked artery causes a deadly kind of heart attack known as STEMI, and a rapid response to clear the blockage saves lives. But in more than half of cases studied recently by Duke Medicine researchers, one or both of the patient's other arteries were also obstructed, raising questions about whether and when additional procedures might be undertaken. In a study published in the Nov. 19, 2014, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Duke researchers and their colleagues report the first large analysis of how often these secondary blockages ...

A novel registry study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden suggests that beta blockers may benefit also patients suffering from a relatively unknown form of heart failure called HFPEF, which today lacks well-established treatment. HFPEF involves an impaired ability of the heart to fill with blood, and affects nearly 2% of the population. These new findings are being published in the scientific periodical JAMA. Heart failure was for a long time defined as reduced ability to contract the heart and pump oxygenated blood out to the rest of the body. This condition is often ...

More than 40 percent of reports about energy drinks to U.S. poison control centers involved children younger than 6 with some suffering serious cardiac and neurological symptoms, according to a new study presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. This disproportionate representation of children is concerning given the number of reports of serious cardiac and neurological symptoms, said Steven Lipshultz, M.D., the study's senior author and professor and chair of pediatrics at Wayne State University and pediatrician-in-chief at Children's Hospital ...

Recent asthma symptoms or asthma that requires daily medication may significantly raise the risk of heart attack, according to two research papers presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. "Physicians should do all they can to control every other modifiable cardiovascular risk factor in patients with asthma," said Matthew C. Tattersall, D.O., M.S., study author and an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, Wisconsin. Tattersall's ...

Young women with stable coronary heart disease are more likely than men to have reduced blood flow to the heart if they're under emotional stress, but not physical stress, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. Compared to men of the same age, when subjected to a mental stress test, women: age 55 and younger had three times greater reduction in blood flow to the heart; age 56-64 had double the reduction in blood flow to the heart; and age 65 and older had no difference in blood flow to the heart. "Women who ...

Breathing secondhand marijuana smoke could damage your heart and blood vessels as much as secondhand cigarette smoke, according to preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. In the study, blood vessel function in lab rats dropped 70 percent after 30 minutes of exposure to secondhand marijuana smoke. Even when the marijuana contained no tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) -- a compound in marijuana that produces intoxication -- blood vessel function was still impaired. Reduced blood vessel function may raise the chances of developing ...

CHICAGO -- Patients with active asthma -- such as any use of asthma medications, and unscheduled office or emergency visits for asthma -- are at a twofold risk of having a heart attack, according to Mayo Clinic research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. Researchers compared 543 patients who had heart attacks with 543 non-heart attack patients of the same age and gender. These patients were treated at health care facilities in Rochester, Minnesota, between 2002 and 2006. The average age of patients was 67 years old, and 44 percent ...

CHICAGO - Members of the public in counties with higher median household incomes are more likely to step into action to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, when they witness someone have a cardiac arrest, according to a new study led by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, which was presented today at the American Heart Association's Resuscitation Science Symposium 2014. "It's important for bystanders to act quickly when they witness someone experiencing cardiac arrest," said lead study author Kam Ching (Nina) Li, ...

WASHINGTON -- Neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) are zeroing in on brain factors and behaviors that put teens at risk of alcohol use and abuse even before they start drinking. Four abstracts from the Adolescent Development Study exploring these factors will be presented at Neuroscience 2014, the Society for Neuroscience's annual meeting in Washington. The Adolescent Development Study, a collaboration between the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and GUMC funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is a wide-ranging effort ...

MIAMI -- A chemotherapy regimen consisting of procarbazine, CCNU, and vincristine (PCV) administered following radiation therapy improved progression-free survival and overall survival in adults with low-grade gliomas, a form of brain cancer, when compared to radiation therapy alone. The findings were part of the results of a Phase III clinical trial presented today at the Society for Neuro-Oncology's 19th Annual Meeting in Miami by the study's primary author Jan Buckner, M.D., deputy director, practice, at Mayo Clinic Cancer Center. "On average, patients who received ...

Philadelphia, PA (November 15, 2014) -- A healthy diet may help protect the kidneys, according to two studies that will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2014 November 11¬-16 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA. Dietary modifications may be a low-cost, simple intervention to reduce the burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD). To test this hypothesis, Andrew Smyth, MD (National University of Ireland Galway) and his colleagues analyzed questionnaires completed by 544,635 participants of the National Institutes of Health-AARP Diet and Health Study ...

Boston -- A molecule in the blood shows promise as a marker to predict whether individual rheumatoid arthritis patients are likely to benefit from biologic medications or other drugs should be tried, a Mayo Clinic-led study shows. The protein, analyzed in blood tests, may help avoid trial and error with medications, sparing patients treatment delays and unnecessary side effects and expense. The research is among several Mayo Clinic studies presented at the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting in Boston. Researchers tested blood samples taken before rheumatoid ...

Philadelphia, PA (November 15, 2014) -- Perceived racial discrimination may contribute to disparities related to kidney disease, according to a study that will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2014 November 11-16 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA. Psychosocial factors such as perceived racial discrimination have been associated with chronic diseases, but little is known about the relationship between perceived racial discrimination and kidney function decline. Researchers led by Angedith Poggi-Burke, MPH and Deidra Crews, MD, FASN (National ...