Gale Scott

The FDA approved a second drug to treat diabetic retinopathy in patients with diabetic macular edema.

Women who have 4 or more children have a higher risk of developing atherosclerosis, a Texas study found. Researchers who analyzed data on coronary artery calcium and aortic wall thickness found these 2 cardiac risk factors were most pronounced in that high-birth group and far lower in women who had 2 or 3 children. Curiously, women who had 1 or no children also showed they had the risk factors similar to the high-birth group.

Pressure on US hospitals to cut costs is fueling a new trend, sending patients home as little as 2 days after primary percutaneous coronary intervention after a serious heart attack. Most US patients go home in 4 to 5 days. A new study finds the short stay is usually safe and the research will likely add momentum to the trend.

Falls are a constant health threat for older people. A study in Finland looked at whether vitamin D supplements, exercise, or both could lessen the risk of falling for women ages 70 to 80. The US Preventive Services Task Force recommends that those at risk of falling should take vitamin D. A new study finds that does not help.

Preventive angioplasty may be the next big thing. In a study presented at the American College of Cardiology meeting in San Diego, CA, researchers recommended complete revascularization of constricted arteries in patients who had a STEMI heart attack.

Patients with acute coronary syndrome undergoing angioplasty who got the anticoagulant bivalirudin (Angiomax/Medicines Company) had significantly lower rates of bleeding complications and death than controls, according to a Dutch study.

Could avoiding Alzheimer's disease be as simple as changing your diet? A Rush University team thinks prevention is tied to an eating plan they call the MIND diet.

About two-thirds of surgeons performing mitral valve surgery on patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) do ablation procedures at the same time. There are no official guidelines on when to do both. Trying to provide more information to guide such decisions, a US-Canada team randomized a group of these patients to either valve repair alone, or valve repair with ablation. The dual approach seems better.

Obesity is associated with atrial fibrillation (AF) but the heart condition can be reduced if these patients shed pounds.

Interventional cardiologists would do better to access heart arteries through a patient's arm than groin, a Dutch study found. Though the radial approach is technically more difficult, it is safer with a lower risk of severe bleeding.

Physicians may think patients over 80 are too old to benefit from agressive care to treat unstable angina or clogged arteries that caused a heart attack. Think again, a Norwegian researcher said at the American College of Cardiology meeting in San Diego, CA. These patients were 47% more likely to survive and healthier after invasive procedures than a group that got non-invasive care.

People with healthy blood pressure levels tend to have higher levels of vitamin D than those with high blood pressure. But a new review of studies on vitamin D supplementation showed taking it did not lower high blood pressure.

The practice of using a syringe to suck a blood clot out of a coronary artery when a heart attack patient is undergoing angioplasty is common. But a study of 10,000 patients showed this manual thrombectomy procedure was associated with a higher rate of strokes in these patients.

In patients with heart failure and atrial fibrillation, those who had catheter ablation had better results than those who took the anti-arrhythmic medication amiodarone, reported researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

When patients have chest pain, a CT scan can rule out disease or find it, the SCOT-HEART study found. That led to some patients learning they did not need treatment and others getting interventions that saved lives.

Only 1 in 5 patients who might benefit from an implantable defibrillator after being hospitalized for heart failure gets counselling on that option, a Duke study found.

A trial of an anti-clotting therapy that might have given physicians a way to turn on and turn off the blood's tendency to clot had to be halted because some patients had severe allergic reactions, researchers reported. Now they are focusing on why that happened in hopes of reviving the work.

Researchers had high hopes for the potential tissue-damage mediation capabilities of Bendavia, an experimental drug that targets the mitochondria. But a trial of Bendavia in patients undergoing angioplasty failed to show any significant benefit.

A new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs is emerging, known as PCSK9 inhibitors. Reporting on results of a safety and efficacy trial of Amgen's entry in this race, evolocumab, showed it did better than standard therapy when it came to adverse events and cholesterol lowering, and showed promise for reducing cardiac events.

AstraZeneca researchers report that a new drug call MED12452 is being developed as an antidote for patients who need to reverse the effects of ticagrelor (Brilinta/AstraZeneca) on an emergency basis. That could be important for patients taking ticagrelor who need emergency surgery or are bleeding from an accident.

The time and money involved in screening echocardiography of stress testing in asymptomatic individuals with no cardiac risk factors is likely not worth it, an analysis of the US Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine's database found

In previous studies, interleukin-6 has been cited as a predictor of mortality in patients with acute decompensated heart failure. But a study by researchers at the Cleveland Clinic challenges that finding.

Medicine is far more than a science. Physicians should never forget that their patients are more than collections of data and that care is not measured in mouse clicks, physician-author, educator and bedside manner expert extraordinaire Abraham Verghese, MD, told a standing room crowd. His talk "I Carry Your Heart" kicked off the American College of Cardiology's meeting in San Diego, CA.

Electrically stabilizing the myocardial border zone with vagal nerve stimulation (VNS) may offer a new mechanism for reducing arrhythmia.

Physicians could help heart failure patients suffering from reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (HFrEF) by using pulmonary artery pressure management.

The protein-coding gene FOXO may play a crucial role in defending the heart from coxsackie virus B3, according to researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, NY.

Wavefront pacing affects accuracy in voltage mapping scars in the heart, UCLA researchers report.

Time is important in getting patients with advanced heart failure (HF) to appropriate care. In a new study, a Utah research team reports on a new electronic approach.

Amgen's monoclonal antibody evolocumab (formerly called AMG 145) did well at inhibiting proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin 9 (PCSK9) and reducing LDL cholesterol in a group of older patients, researchers report.

Certain metabolites could be used as new biomarkers for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.