The obesity epidemic is increasingly affecting young teens worldwide. In the USA the epidemic is well-established: more than 17% of children are obese and about a third of those have high blood pressure, which places them at risk for premature heart disease.
Cardiovascular risk in obese patients can be reduced up to 79% in those who undergo Roux-en-Y gastric bypass after other treatments have failed, compared with those who do not have this procedure, according to a study published in the American Journal of Cardiology (1/10/08).
Timing, emergency network, reperfusion therapy are central to new recommendations for the management of heart attack which have been developed by a Task Force of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and were issued on the 14th November.
When from 19 to 22 November the world's largest medical fair takes place in Dusseldorf, the entire city is in a kind of emergency state: hotels are bustin' out of their seams, traffic periodically comes to a standstill and at night exhibitors and visitors alike crowd the narrow streets of the Altstadt and the fancy hotel bars and enjoy whatever entertainment North Rhine-Westphalia's capital has…
Professor Stefan Schönberg of the Institute of Clinical Radiology and Nuclear Medicine (IKRN), University Hospital Mannheim, Medical Faculty of Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, invited colleagues from Mannheim and the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BFS) in Neuherberg for a round-table discussion on: Non-invasive multidetector coronary CT angiography (CTA) has become an established…
The Swiss charity EurAsia Heart, founded in 2006 by cardiac surgeon Professor Paul Vogt MD, at Zurich University Hospital, emerged from numerous contacts being made with Asian heart surgeons at the beginning of 2000, and consequent invitations to perform surgery and lecture tours in China.
Lab21 is to expand its portfolio of genetic tests for inherited cardiac syndromes.
'An effective, safe treatment for prophylaxis of restenosis in periphery and cardiology' — new generation of Endovascular Brachytherapy gains full CE-certification. Constricted blood vessels (stenosis and restenosis) can now sustainably be treated and kept open through the local treatment with beta radiation.
X-rays are made up of high-energy photons. This type of radiation follows the physical laws of electromagnetic waves as well as of particles.
Philips and Steris join forces to provide hybrid surgical rooms: a flexible environment for optimal imaging during open and minimally invasive cardiovasculare procedures that will optimise workflow and streamline room planning.
The next flu season will come. To prevent high-risk people from infections, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recently published a final guidance on the use of the drugs oseltamivir, amantadine and zanamivir for the prophylaxis of influenza. "But vaccination is the main way to prevent flu", says Gillian Leng, NICE Deputy Chief Executive.
Until recently, physicians believed that stenosis was responsible for strokes. But new investigations show that the composition of complicated plaques are the major cause. Canadian researchers now used 3-D MRI to accuratly detect bleeding by those plaques within the vessel walls.
Mediterranean diet protects against chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. Italian scientists bolstering one more time the idea that low intake of meat, dairy products and alcohol, but high intake of vegetables, fruits, nuts, olive oil, grains and fish servers as a model of healthy eating, according to a study in the British Medical Journal.
New research claims that nearly four million people in the UK may be unaware they are at high risk of heart disease. An University of Oxford team screened more than 71,000 people aged over 18 across England, Wales and Scotland.
ESC speaker John Cleland from the University of Hull, UK, sumed up the latest treatment available for patients with diabetes mellitus and expressed his worries about side-effects and efficacy of available anti-diabetic drugs. If you want to read his ESC abstract, just click the “read more” button.
Last week the English government closed its consultation on the effectiveness of vascular checks for high-risk people aged 40-74. Would this help? Experts from New Zealand and the WHO say "yes". Others argue that public health approaches targeting the whole population are both: cheaper and more effective than tablets.
The common parlance knew it long before experts paid attention to it: a persons mood can be associated to its heart. But indeed in recent years much attention has been spend to depression following heart attack and its effects on prognosis. On the Congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) two Dutch studies have been introduced indicating that especially somatic and incident depression…
A new analysis presented during the ESC on the effects of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in patients with mild heart failure shows improvement in several areas, including left ventricular ejection fraction, a standard measure of the heart's pumping effectiveness and key indicator of heart health.
It seems like the innovative non surgical technique of transcatheter aortic valve replacement heralds the start for radical changes in the field of valvular heart disease. Promising results from different clinical studys underline the positive impact.
Two Dutch studies indicate that especially somatic and incident depressions are associated with poor prognosis in cardiac patients, which is very different from the 'typical' psychiatric depression that is usually characterised by cognitive and recurrent depressive symtoms.
The inverse epidemiological association between serum levels of HDL-C and risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) is graded and has been validated in multiple studies. However, there is remaining controversy whether a low HDL-C should not predominantly be considered a marker of poor lifestyle (obesity, lack of exercise, hypertriglyceridemia, diet, etc.), rather than a primary causal agent for…
Lifestyle and risk factor results show that recommended scientific guidelines form a contrast to what is achieved in daily practice in high risk individuals in primary prevention of CVD. Together with its partners the ESC demands a comprehensive and multisdicplinary primary prevention programme involving the high-risk population, their GP's and other health professionals, a health insurance…
The International Chair on Cardiometabolic Risk (ICCR) is pleased to announce the three winners of the European Media Prize co-sponsored by the ICCR and the Association of European Journalists (AEJ) and launched in November 2007 to reward articles that best inform readers about a growing public health issue: abdominal obesity and related risk of cardiovascular disease.
"Surgery should be performed using as often as possible surgical mitral valve repair, as this treatment has shown safety, efficacy and good long-term results," says French Prof Alec Vahanian on Monday, the third ESC day.
Transapical aortic valve implantation (TA-AVI) is a new therapeutic strategy, which has been implemented successfully into clinical practice in several hundred patients suffering symptomatic aortic stenosis and an increase perioperative risk during the past two years. The Edwards SAPIEN™ prosthesis has been used.
