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Physicians are underutilizing aggressive therapies such as anti clotting drugs and invasive procedures in heart patients, despite the presence of biochemical markers in the blood indicating heart muscle death.
An analysis of 4,657 patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery has shown that discontinuing certain heart medications such as beta blockers and ACE inhibitors can lead to abnormal accelerations in heart pumping known as atrial fibrillation.
Coronary artery bypass patients are twice as likely to suffer a later major cardiac event if they experience abnormalities in the motion of the walls of the main pumping chamber of their heart during surgery.
While many clinical trials have consistently proven the ability of aspirin and beta blockers in forestalling future heart attacks, the new Duke analysis is the first to link consistent use of these drugs with improved outcomes.
scientists have found that modern implanted heart devices, such as pacemakers and defibrillators, are safe for use in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines.
Implanted devices intended to optimize the cardiac function of patients with heart failure have provided new insights into which patients might be at higher risk of dying suddenly from their disease.
The newly upgraded device produces precise diagnostic pictures within five to 10 seconds for patients experiencing symptoms associated with heart attack.
Research has defined a previously undescribed inherited cardiac arrhythmia syndrome that can lead to sudden death and can strike young, seemingly healthy people.
Specific variants of genes involved in inflammation and blood vessel constriction are strongly associated with kidney damage in patients undergoing major heart surgery.
The benefits of statins in reducing the risk of heart attacks have been demonstrated in patients with stable coronary artery disease or those at risk for a future heart attack.
Heart patients are more than twice as likely to die during their first 30 days of hospitalization if they receive a blood transfusion to treat blood loss or anemia.
Patients with heart failure undergoing major non cardiac surgical procedures are almost twice as likely to die as other patients. Outcomes after major non-cardiac surgery were similar in patients with coronary artery disease and those with no heart disease.
When it comes to lipid profiles, a key measure of heart disease risk, it appears that African Americans and women have it better than whites and men.
Findings have important economic and clinical implications for physicians who are deciding whether their heart patients should receive coronary artery bypass surgery, or less invasive angioplasty, which includes the placement of a stent.
Patients who undergo coronary artery bypass surgery are prescribed life saving medications at discharge significantly less frequently than heart attack patients who receive less invasive angioplasty procedures.
The incidence of cardiac tamponade, an infrequent but potentially fatal event following a heart attack, has not increased despite the widespread use of clot-busting and blood-thinning medications.
Researchers found that African-American heart attack patients have a 1.7 times higher death rate than Caucasians one year after being treated in the hospital.
Adherence to medical therapy, even if the medication is an inert placebo, relates to better outcomes for heart failure patients.
Researchers have discovered that a variant of a transcription factor crucial to the regulation of a cell's metabolism is associated with decreased pump function in heart patients. The finding could provide a clue to the variability of how heart failure develops in many patients.
A large group of heart failure patients can live longer with implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy. Data demonstrating that ICDs are also a cost-effective therapy.
While patients hospitalized for a heart attack have long been treated with morphine to relieve chest pain, a new analysis has shown that these patients have almost a 50 percent higher risk of dying.
The closer hospitals adhere to national guidelines for treating potential heart attack patients, the greater the decline in their mortality rates.
The drug eplerenone is a cost effective way to extend the lives of people who develop congestive heart failure after suffering a heart attack.
If you are at risk for a heart attack, taking aspirin every day or every other day can lower your risk.
Women who have suffered a heart attack or have chest pain are being prescribed appropriate drug intervention at hospital discharge at the same frequency as men.
ORLANDO, Feb. 18 - Women who have suffered a heart attack or have chest pain are being prescribed appropriate drug intervention at hospital discharge at the same frequency as men, researchers reported at the Second International Conference on Women, Heart Disease and Stroke.
Low dose aspirin therapy has been shown to reduce the chances of a secondary heart attack or stroke in women who already have cardiovascular disease (CVD).
Heredity sometimes influences where fatty deposits develop in a coronary artery. The new findings, could affect heart disease screening strategies for close relatives of coronary heart patients.
Regeneration of damaged hearts using blood stem cells now appears to be clinically promising. The study begins to explain why stem cells can help a heart heal.
Two drugs that the FDA warns against using in many heart failure patients may benefit some diabetics with heart failure. study found that patients with heart failure and diabetes who were prescribed one or both of two types of diabetes drugs, metformin and thiazolidinediones, had lower death rates.
A new rating scale can help physicians predict whether patients will feel better if their clogged heart arteries are opened non surgically or with a major bypass operation.
