Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have shown that fat collection in different body locations, such as around the heart and the aorta and within the liver, are associated with certain decreased heart functions. The study, which appears online in Obesity, also found that measuring a person`s body mass index (BMI) does not reliably predict the amount of undesired fat in and...

While studying how the heart is formed, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine serendipitously found a novel cellular source of atrial fibrillation (AF), the most common type of abnormal heart beat. Jonathan Epstein, MD, William Wikoff Smith Professor, and Chair, Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, and Vickas Patel, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, have ...

Declining kidney function is linked to a higher risk of heart failure, heart attack, peripheral arterial disease, and early death in individuals with or without kidney disease, according to a pair of studies appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The findings indicate that poor kidney function may raise an individual`s risk for cardiovascular compl...

Heart attacks appear to have become more common in middle-aged women over the past two decades, but all women and especially those younger than 55 have recently experienced a greater increase than men in their chances of survival following such a heart event, according to two reports in the October 26 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Middle-aged women have...

More than half of patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) don`t get any counselling on their ability to drive after angioplasty — and this could be putting lives in danger, Dr. Ravi Bajaj told the 2009 Canadian Cardiovascular Congress, co-hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society. "If a patient is discharged from hospital following a cardiac e...

A mathematical model constructed by researchers at Imperial College London predicts the risk of cardiovascular disease (heart attacks, stroke) associated with low background levels of radiation. The model shows that the risk would vary almost in proportion with dose. Results, published October 23 in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology, are consistent with risk levels reported in pre...

Diabetes increases by 26 percent the likelihood that women will develop atrial fibrillation (AF), a potentially dangerous irregular heart rhythm that can lead to stroke, heart failure, and chronic fatigue. These are the findings of a new Kaiser Permanente study, published in the October issue of Diabetes Care, a journal of the American Diabetes Association. While other studies have found that pati...

People with high levels of a protein called C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker for inflammation in the blood, may be at higher risk for heart attack and death but not stroke, according to a study published in the October 20, 2009, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study involved 2,240 people from the Northern Manhattan Study who were 40 ye...

A screening test that measures whether a patient`s heart is healthy enough for a kidney transplant is not as dangerous as once thought, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN). The findings indicate that the test, called coronary angiography, does not cause a decline in kidney function for patients with advanced chronic...

Smoking bans are effective at reducing the risk of heart attacks and heart disease associated with exposure to secondhand smoke, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. The report also confirms there is sufficient evidence that breathing secondhand smoke boosts nonsmokers` risk for heart problems, adding that indirect evidence indicating that even relatively brief exposures could lead to...