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.
Catheter ablation is still associated with a substantial amount of complications, and more failure then sometimes reported. Perforation with catheters is especially important in atrial fibrillation. Robotic navigation could reduce these complications.
The Acuson SC2000 volume imaging ultrasound system - reported to be the first system in the world to acquire non-stitched real-time full-volume 3-D images of the heart in one single heart cycle - is launched at the ESC meeting in Munich.
The BACH (Biomarkers in Acute Congestive Heart Failure) trail, an international, multi-marker study, analysed the diagnostic and prognostic precision of new biomarkers in patients with dyspnea (Shortness of Breath).
Intima media thickness (IMT) is a valuable research tool that can be used as surrogate end points in clinical trails, says Professor Stefan Agewall.
Since Rofecoxib (Vioxx) was withdrawn from the worldwide market based on the safety findings of the Adenomatous Polyp Prevention on Vioxx (APPROVe) study, the uncertainty around the cardiovascular safety of NSAIDs and COX-2 inhibitors remains and leaves practitioners with difficult management decisions for the hundreds of millions of patients worldwide who continue to require pain-relieving…
Professor C Mueller adressed the issue of new biomarkers in acute cardiac care on the ESC on Monday, 1st September. Read his comment in the following.
Recent studies have shown that overweight and obesity during childhood and adolescence have a negative impact on the functioning of the internal walls of the arteries, paving the way to the development of an arteriosclerotic disease from an increasingly early age.
Under the banner Hear today the heartbeats of tomorrow, at this year's ESC meeting GE Healthcare will showcase its latest cardiology technology for the management of cardiovascular disease (CVD) as well as several new products.
What is the role of vascular ultrasound in stroke prevention? Asked by Karoline Laarmann of European Hospital, Professor Christian Arning MD, Medical Director of the Neurology Department at Asklepios Klinik Wandsbek, Germany, and Deputy Chairman of the German Society of Ultrasound in Medicine (DEGUM), gave an unequivocal answer: crucial - but only if the sonographer is properly qualified.
An emerging discipline of noninvasive cardiac imaging, molecular imaging, has evolved constantly in the last few years and is increasingly being translated from the preclinical to the clinical level. Molecular imaging allows for unique insights into specific disease mechanisms and holds great promise to change the practice of cardiovascular medicine by facilitating early disease detection,…
While treadmill exercise stress testing is essential to detect cardiovascular disease, gaining clear cardiac images at peak stress level are not easy to gain using standard testing procedures. Now, however, researchers at the Ohio State University Medical Centre have designed equipment to provide high-resolution cardiac images at a critical testing stage, with results in under one hour.
London, UK - A Hansen Sensei* robot has been used to perform vascular surgery on a 78-year-old patient for an aneurysm that would have been thought too high-risk for conventional surgery.
Among the many aims of the Heart Failure Association of the ESC is the establishment of networks for the HF management, education and research.
Syncope (fainting) is a leading cause of hospital emergency visits. In almost 10% of patients, syncope has a cardiac cause; in 50%, a non-cardiac cause, and in 40% the cause of syncope is unknown. Syncope is difficult to diagnose as syncopal episodes are often too infrequent and unpredictable for detection with conventional monitoring techniques.
A new educational website specifically for heart failure patients, their families and carers, has been set up by the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology.
Seeking to set the agenda for urgent atrial fibrillation (AF) research, European and international cardiologists will gather this October at the European Heart House, in Sophia Antipolis, the headquarters of the European Society of Cardiology.
