Latest heart attack Stories

Chest pain patients educated about their future heart attack risk and involved in deciding care options were more likely than less-aware patients to opt out of stress testing, according to research in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal. Chest pain, the second most common reason people seek emergency care at U.S. hospitals, accounts for 8 million patient visits and about $8 billion in healthcare costs annually, researchers said. "To...

An extensive UCSF study finds certain abnormalities can increase risk Can a simple diagnostic test used to measure a heart's electrical activity help predict heart attacks? And can that knowledge help doctors reroute their patients away from coronary heart disease? These are the questions researchers at UCSF asked in a comprehensive eight-year study focused on senior citizens in the United States. Researchers found a higher risk of heart attack when abnormalities showed up on...

SAN DIEGO, April 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Transplanted ischemic tolerant mesenchymal stem cells (itMSC) developed by Stemedica Cell Technologies, Inc., a leader in adult allogeneic stem cell manufacturing, research and development, produced significant improvement in the pumping function of the left ventricle in patients who had experienced a heart attack. The study was presented at the 26th American College of Cardiology (ACC) meeting in Chicago, March 26, 2012. Transplanted ischemic...

CRESSKILL, N.J., March 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Even after published studies described Avandia's dangerous side effects, Type 2 diabetes sufferers, who are at the highest risk of developing fatal heart disease, were prescribed the drug in order to lower their blood sugar levels. Tens of thousands of suits have been settled by GlaxoSmithKline to resolve claims that its drug Avandia increased the risk of heart attack in Type 2 diabetes patients. Plaintiff attorneys with Avandia...

Men who are moderate drinkers and who have survived a first heart attack have a lower risk of death from heart disease or any other cause than non-drinkers, according to the results of a study of nearly 2000 men in the USA. The latest findings from the US Health Professionals Follow-up Study, a prospective study of 51,529 US male health professionals, are published online today (Wednesday) in the European Heart Journal and they show that, having survived a first heart attack, men who drank...

Pregnancy raises the risk of fatal heart attacks, even in healthy women without risk factors for heart disease, a new study finds. Furthermore, heart attacks during pregnancy tend to be more severe, lead to more complications, and also occur for different reasons than commonly seen in the non-pregnant general population, suggesting that, in some cases, the standard approach to managing this condition may not always be best, according to research presented Sunday at the American College of...

Study puts life-saving drugs in the hands of paramedics, decreasing rate of cardiac arrest and death from heart attacks by half Paramedics can reduce someone's chances of having a cardiac arrest or dying by 50 percent by immediately administering a mixture of glucose, insulin and potassium ("GIK") to people having a heart attack, according to research presented today at the American College of Cardiology's 61st Annual Scientific Session. The Scientific Session, the premier cardiovascular...

Study shows CT scans are less costly way to identify patients with chest pain who do not have coronary artery blockage Cardiac computed tomography angiography scans (CT scans that look at the heart) can provide a virtually instant verdict on whether chest pain is from blockage of the coronary arteries. When used early to evaluate chest pain, the scans save patients and hospitals time and money by allowing doctors to quickly determine who should be admitted for treatment for a heart attack...

Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia and a multicenter team of investigators have found that carotid artery stenting (CAS) is safe and effective in patients age 70 and older. Their research showed that while the instance of adverse events (stroke, heart attack, death) increases with age in this high-risk population, in comparison to historical data, the risk remains extremely low, at 6 percent, even in those ages 85 and up. Previous studies of elderly...