Cardio News

Men who believe they are at low risk of a heart attack may in fact live longer than those with a more pessimistic outlook, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that of more than 2,800 adults followed for 15 years, men who thought they were at lower-than-average risk of a heart attack were 70 percent less likely than other men to die of heart disease or stroke—even with their objective risks taken into account.

New research out of Wake Forest University School of Medicine shows that use of the most commonly prescribed once-a-day treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for longer than one month increases the risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack or stroke by more than 50 percent.

Researchers Sonal Singh, M.D., M.P.H., and Curt Furberg, M.D., Ph.D., of Wake Forest, along with Yoon K. Loke, at the University of East Anglia, UK, conducted a meta-analysis of 17 double-blind, randomized trials involving a total of 14,783 patients with COPD.

Individuals with Medicaid insurance and those who live in neighborhoods with lower household incomes appear less likely than others to reach the hospital within two hours of having a heart attack, according to a report in the September 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Patients tend to have better outcomes after an acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) if they receive medical treatment in a timely manner, according to background information in the article.

Men who believe they are at low risk of a heart attack may in fact live longer than those with a more pessimistic outlook, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that of more than 2,800 adults followed for 15 years, men who thought they were at lower-than-average risk of a heart attack were 70 percent less likely than other men to die of heart disease or stroke—even with their objective risks taken into account.

New research out of Wake Forest University School of Medicine shows that use of the most commonly prescribed once-a-day treatment for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) for longer than one month increases the risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack or stroke by more than 50 percent.

Researchers Sonal Singh, M.D., M.P.H., and Curt Furberg, M.D., Ph.D., of Wake Forest, along with Yoon K. Loke, at the University of East Anglia, UK, conducted a meta-analysis of 17 double-blind, randomized trials involving a total of 14,783 patients with COPD.

Individuals with Medicaid insurance and those who live in neighborhoods with lower household incomes appear less likely than others to reach the hospital within two hours of having a heart attack, according to a report in the September 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Patients tend to have better outcomes after an acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) if they receive medical treatment in a timely manner, according to background information in the article.

It has long been thought that virus infections can cause cardiac arrhythmia. But why has not been understood. Ulrike Lisewski, Dr. Yu Shi, Michael Radke and Professor Michael Gotthardt of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch, Germany, have now discovered the molecular mechanism. The researchers demonstrated that the receptor which the virus uses to infect heart cells is normally necessary for regular heart beat in mice. Likewise, when the receptor is absent or non-functioning, arrhythmia occurs.

Researchers have identified specific damages to the brain that may occur when heart attack victims are socially isolated from others.

The study in mice found that those animals that lived alone before undergoing a heart attack showed five to eight times more damage to neurons in one part of the brain than did similar animals that lived with others.

While studies in humans have shown that socially isolated heart attack victims have a lower survival rate than others, this study may help reveal the mechanisms behind that result, said Zachary Weil, co-author of the study and former doctoral st

Thousands of patients with high blood pressure could benefit from changing their drug treatment regimen to reduce their risk of cardiac death.

The current U.S. hypertension treatment guidelines recommend using a thiazide diuretic – a drug that increases the volume of urine – alone as the initial drug therapy for high blood pressure.