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Heart Risks Last Beyond Hospital Discharge, Study Finds

Posted 1 day 17 hours ago by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, May 16 – Patients with heart failure or a heart attack appear to be at high risk of death or readmission to the hospital for at least one month after being discharged, researchers say. And the period of increased risk for these patients may be even longer after they leave the hospital. The study authors suggested that patients should continue to be careful about their health once they are home and seek immediate medical attention if they develop symptoms or feel sick. "The risks of death and rehospitalization can extend well beyond 30 days after discharge, the time period used by the federal government for measuring hospital performance," study lead author Dr. Kumar Dharmarajan, a fellow in cardiology at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, said in a news release from the American Heart Association. "Post-discharge care may be improved when aligned to the ... Read more

Young Women Less Healthy Than Men Before Heart Attack: Study

Posted 2 days 15 hours ago by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, May 15 – Among young heart attack victims, women often have more medical issues, more chest pain and worse quality of life before the event than men, a new study reveals. The researchers, from the Yale School of Medicine, said young women also tend to have worse mental health with more physical limitations prior to their heart attacks. The findings could help explain why young women often have worse outcomes than their male peers after a heart attack, said the researchers, who concluded that doctors should regularly assess young women's heart attack risk. "Compared with young men, women under 55 are less likely to have heart attacks," study author Rachel Dreyer, a research fellow in cardiovascular medicine at Yale, said in an American Heart Association news release. "But when they do occur, women are more likely to have medical problems, poorer physical and mental ... Read more

Related support groups: Heart Attack, Myocardial Infarction

Follow-Up Care After Chest Pain Called Crucial

Posted 1 Apr 2013 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, April 1 – Timely follow-up care with a doctor after going to an emergency department with chest pain significantly reduces the risk of heart attack or death among high-risk patients previously diagnosed with heart disease or diabetes, a new study says. Chest pain is the most common reason patients go to the ER, accounting for more than 5 million visits each year in the United States. In this study, researchers analyzed data from nearly 57,000 adults, average age 66, in Canada who were diagnosed with chest pain in an ER and had been previously diagnosed with heart disease or diabetes. Only 17 percent of the patients were evaluated by a cardiologist within a month after their ER visit, 58 percent saw only a primary care doctor, and 25 percent had no doctor follow-up, according to the study published April 1 in the journal Circulation. Compared to patients who did not seek ... Read more

Related support groups: Heart Attack, Myocardial Infarction

Modest Cardiac Benefit From Chelation Therapy Not Enough to OK Use: Experts

Posted 26 Mar 2013 by Drugs.com

TUESDAY, March 26 – Results from a major trial on controversial chelation therapy for patients with a history of heart attack find a modest benefit from the expensive treatment, but experts conclude there's no clear evidence supporting its use. Still, "groups that advocate for chelation and groups that oppose chelation will both find comfort in the results," said one expert not connected to the study, Dr. Stephen Green, associate chairman in the department of cardiology at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y. Chelation therapy involves dozens of arduous infusions conducted over a period of years, aimed at leaching excess metals from the body. Patients typically also receive high doses of vitamins and minerals. The therapy has been offered to heart patients by some clinics across the United States for decades, although its use for this purpose has been considered ... Read more

Related support groups: Heart Attack, Myocardial Infarction

Excess Salt a Factor in 2.3 Million Deaths Annually Worldwide

Posted 23 Mar 2013 by Drugs.com

THURSDAY, March 21 – Overabundant salt intake was a factor in nearly 2.3 million deaths from heart attacks, strokes and other heart-related causes that occurred worldwide in 2010, according to a new study. That number represents 15 percent of all heart-related deaths that year, the researchers said. Nearly 1 million deaths (40 percent) caused by eating too much salt were considered premature, occurring in people aged 69 and younger, the study found. Sixty percent of the deaths were in men. The United States ranked 19th out of the 30 largest countries, with 429 deaths per million adults caused by eating too much salt. That works out to one in 10 of all heart-related deaths in the United States, the study authors noted. Heart attacks caused 42 percent of the deaths worldwide, while strokes caused 41 percent. The rest of the deaths were caused by other types of cardiovascular disease. ... Read more

Related support groups: High Blood Pressure, Hypertension, Heart Attack, Myocardial Infarction

Obese New Mothers May Have Higher Heart Attack, Stroke Risk

Posted 11 Mar 2013 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, March 11 – Obese young women who have recently given birth have a greatly increased risk of heart attack and stroke, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed data from more than 273,000 women in Denmark with an average age of 30 who had given birth between 2004 and 2009. None of the women had a history of stroke, heart disease or kidney problems. During up to six years of follow-up, 68 of the women had a heart attack and 175 had a stroke. Obese women were twice as likely as those with normal weight to suffer a heart attack or stroke within four to five years after giving birth. This increased risk among obese women remained even after the researchers accounted for other pregnancy-related complications or cardiovascular risk factors, including smoking. Although heart attack and stroke are very rare among women in this age group, a clear and strong link exists between being ... Read more

Related support groups: Obesity, Ischemic Stroke, Heart Attack, Myocardial Infarction

Study: Mega Vitamins Won't Help After Heart Attack, Chelation Treatment Might

Posted 11 Mar 2013 by Drugs.com

SUNDAY, March 10 – There's mixed news from a much-anticipated clinical trial for people who've suffered a heart attack: While a study found that daily high doses of vitamins and minerals did nothing to improve patient outcomes, there was a hint that controversial "chelation" therapy might. Still, the lead researcher said he's not ready to recommend chelation therapy, in which doctors give patients high-dose vitamins along with special infusions that seek to leach heavy metals from the body. "These findings should stimulate further research, but are not by themselves sufficient to recommend the routine use of chelation therapy and high-dose vitamins in most patients," said Dr. Gervasio Lamas, chief of the Columbia University Division of Cardiology at Mount Sinai Medical Center, in Miami Beach, Fla. The trial, which was funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, looked at whether ... Read more

New Drugs Might Give Heart Patients an Edge

Posted 11 Mar 2013 by Drugs.com

SUNDAY, March 10 – In the search for better medicines to safely help heart patients, clinical trials testing three new drugs appear to offer some promise. Two of the drugs, cangrelor and inclacumab, might improve outcomes for patients undergoing cardiac interventions such as angioplasty or stenting, while a third drug, Inspra, seems to lower heart patients' odds for death and heart failure following a heart attack. All three trials were funded by the respective drugs' makers, and all three were presented Sunday at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) in San Francisco. In the first trial, researchers compared an as-yet approved blood thinner called cangrelor against the current standard medication, Plavix (clopidogrel), for patients who have recently had a stent implanted in an artery to help improve blood flow. According to the ACC, more than 600,000 coronary ... Read more

HIV May Raise Risk of Heart Attack

Posted 4 Mar 2013 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, March 4 – People living with HIV may face a greater chance of suffering a heart attack, a new study indicates. Researchers looked at data on more than 82,000 U.S. veterans, and found that there were 871 heart attacks in this group over a median follow-up of 5.9 years. The investigators also found that HIV-positive people had a "consistently and significantly higher" risk of heart attack across three decades of their lives. Among the veterans, heart attack events per 1,000 people per year were: at ages 40 to 49, 2.0 for those with HIV and 1.5 for those who did not have HIV; at ages 50 to 59, 3.9 for those with HIV versus 2.2 for those without HIV; at ages 60 to 69, 5.0 for those with HIV versus 3.3 for those without HIV. After accounting for other risk factors, the researchers calculated that people with HIV have an overall 48 percent increased risk of heart attack. The study ... Read more

Related support groups: Heart Attack, HIV Infection, Myocardial Infarction

Heart-Healthy Habits in Childhood May Prevent Future Disease

Posted 4 Mar 2013 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, March 4 – Teaching children heart-healthy habits now can help protect them from heart disease when they're adults, an expert says. "The process of atherosclerosis, which is the hardening of the arteries and is known to cause heart attacks, strokes and sudden death, has been shown to begin in early childhood," Dr. Zachary Stone, a primary-care doctor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said in a university news release. "It's important to concentrate on healthy lifestyles in children to prevent adult cardiovascular disease." The three heart-health areas to watch in children are diet, physical-activity levels and exposure to secondhand smoke. "Good nutrition can help to decrease cardiovascular disease," Stone said. "It can help prevent obesity, [high blood pressure] and high cholesterol, which are all known cardiovascular risk factors." A child's diet should be low in ... Read more

Sibling's Death May Boost Your Own Risk of Dying From Heart Attack: Study

Posted 27 Feb 2013 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 27 – When a brother or sister dies – especially from a heart attack – the risk of a surviving sibling also dying from a heart attack increases sharply in the following years, a large new study from Sweden suggests. Chronic stress or lifestyle choices like drinking, smoking, unhealthy diet and lack of exercise may follow the loss of a sibling, increasing the risk of a heart attack over time, the researchers said. "Health care providers should follow bereaved siblings to help recognize signs of acute or chronic psychosocial stress mechanisms that could lead to heart attack," said lead researcher Mikael Rostila, an associate professor at Stockholm University and the Karolinska Institute. "We might be able to prevent heart attacks and other heart-related conditions by treating these siblings early on and recommending stress management," he added. Reasons for the ... Read more

Related support groups: Heart Attack, Myocardial Infarction

Smog May Boost Death Risk for Heart Attack Survivors

Posted 20 Feb 2013 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 20 Exposure to smog is linked to higher death risk among people admitted to the hospital for a heart attack, a new study suggests. British researchers found death rates for these patients increased following exposure to air pollution from fine "particulate matter" measuring 2.5 micrometers in diameter or less. They calculated that death rates would drop by 12 percent among heart attack survivors if they were not exposed to higher concentrations of air pollution. In conducting the study, the researchers examined the medical records of more than 150,000 people who were hospitalized for a heart attack between 2004 and 2007. They also analyzed the average air pollution concentrations from 2004 to 2010. The participants were followed until the study ended in 2010, or until they died. Researchers took into account their gender, age, medical history, treatments, medications and ... Read more

Related support groups: Heart Attack, Myocardial Infarction

Smoggy Air Tied to Heart Attacks: Study

Posted 18 Feb 2013 by Drugs.com

SUNDAY, Feb. 17 – Levels of ozone and of air pollution are directly linked to heart attacks, according to a new study from Houston. For both ozone and airborne fine particulate matter (tiny solid and liquid pollutants such as those emitted by cars and factories), peak exposure was found to increase the risk for heart attack nearly 5 percent. Men, blacks and people older than 65 were at greatest risk, the investigators found. These findings should prompt health officials to continue their efforts to reduce air pollution and provide the public with early warnings of high ozone levels, the study authors suggested. "The bottom-line goal is to save lives," researcher Katherine Ensor, a professor and chair of the department of statistics at Rice University, said in a university news release. "We'd like to contribute to a refined warning system for at-risk individuals. Blanket warnings about ... Read more

Related support groups: Heart Attack, Myocardial Infarction

Long Waits in the ER May Raise PTSD Risk for Heart Patients

Posted 11 Feb 2013 by Drugs.com

MONDAY, Feb. 11 – People waiting for countless hours in crowded emergency rooms to be treated for a heart attack or severe chest pain may be at risk for developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a new study suggests. Typically, PTSD is associated with major traumatic experiences such as war or disasters, but it can also occur in highly stressful situations such as sitting in an emergency room for more than 11 hours, the Columbia University researchers said. "The modern emergency department is excellent at acute care, but a number of health system and hospital-level pressures have overcrowded them to a point where being treated there can, at times, worsen long-term prognosis," said study author Donald Edmondson, an assistant professor of behavioral medicine. Although it was small, this is the first study to document the psychological effects of overcrowding in the emergency room ... Read more

Related support groups: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Heart Attack, Myocardial Infarction

Heart Attack Patients Do Better if They Had Chest Pain First

Posted 6 Feb 2013 by Drugs.com

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 6 – People who have chest pain in the 24 hours before a heart attack have smaller heart attacks and better outcomes than those without pre-heart attack chest pain, even when they undergo angioplasty and stenting, a new study shows. Doctors have long noticed that patients with chest pain before heart attack (formally known as "pre-infarction angina") seem to have better outcomes, but it wasn't clear if the protective benefit would still be there in patients who receive angioplasty and stenting, study senior author Dr. Jay Traverse, a research cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation, said in a foundation new release. Angioplasty is used to clear blocked heart arteries and stents are inserted to help keep them open. The researchers looked at data from 245 patients who suffered a first heart attack and underwent angioplasty and stenting. Of those ... Read more

Related support groups: Heart Attack, Angina, Myocardial Infarction

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