EuroPRevent 2009
This year sees the fifth anniversary of EuroPRevent.
Cardiovascular diseases
Hypertension worldwide
Countries vary widely in their capacity to manage hypertension, but globally the majority of diagnosed hypertensives is inadequately controlled. Not treated it can cause cardiovascular disease (CVD), myocardial infarction and stroke. According to the WHO, hypertension is estimated to cause 4.5% of the current global disease burden and is as prevalent in many developing countries as in the…
euHeart
Royal Philips Electronics is to lead `euHeart´, the new European Union (EU) funded research project that aims to improve CVD diagnosis, therapy planning and treatment.
Defibrillator in space
Medicine is not earthly anymore. The first defibrillator has reached the International Space Station (ISS). LIFEPAK 1000 developed by Physio-Control of Redmond will be available for NASA crew members in case of a sudden cardiac arrest in space.
A new nutrition guide: Green for fruits, red for fats
Do we have to create a food guide for people? The European Parliament already proposed this suggestion to protect people from getting cardiovascular diseases. This week experts will discuss the issue at the annual ESC Congress. They believe the UK traffic light system might help people keep more attention to nutrition
NHS not good enough for elder people
British researchers found that the NHS and private healthcare are not providing good enough basic care to a large portion of the population in England. Particulary older and frailer people are suffering from lack of care.
Non invasive but effective
A Canadian study published in the New England Journal of Medicine concludes that chest pain in patients with heart disease could be treated as effective with medication over time as with an expensive angioplasty.
Pay attention to a woman's heart
The probability of woman of suffering from cardiovascular diseases is often underestimated. A recent study evaluated the risk of nearly 9.000 women in the U.S. screened for heart-health risk: one in five women had a higher risk than measured by a frequently used predictor.
Always under doctor's control
A pressure sensor that is implanted into the heart works with an electronic monitoring system that wirelessly measures patient's pulmonary artery pressure. It allows physicians to track the patient's pulmonary artery pressure while they remain at home
New modell to predict risks of heart failure
Hospital admission might probably determine the severity of heart failure. By analysing data from 260 hospitals across the United States researchers created a model to reduce in-hospital mortality and more quickly identify triage methods and treatment decisions.
Seniors got more - prescriptions
Compared to 1997 people aged 60 and over receive a lot more from their physicians: Not more attention but more drugs or other medical aids. The average number of prescriptions for elder people doubled from 1997 to 2007, a report from The NHS Information Centre reveals.
HD-images of a stressed heart
Treadmill exercise testing is a common tool to detect of cardiovascular diseases. But clear images of the working heart are hard to obtain. Now researchers designed MRI equipment to provide high-resolution images of the heart at critical stages.
Microbubbles for a new ultrasound technique
Tiny lipid-shelled microbubbles injected in vessels may serve as an new ultrasound contrast agent to evaluate microvascular blood flow. By this microbubbles US-researcher devised a ultrasound imaging technique that can spot early signs of PAD.
Cardiology at the Crossroads
This May the Brussels-based Crossroads Institute for Cardiac and Vascular Medical Education launched two new educational courses on the prevention of amputation (peripheral vascular disease) and on improving the treatment of women with cardiovascular disease.
Arterieal calcium scan predicts death risk
Scanning the heart's arteries for calcium deposits might be one of the best ways to predict the overall risk of death for adults with cardiac trouble, a new study suggests. This might also help end the controversial discussions about calcium scans.
Bright outlook for cardiovascular monitoring equipment in Europe
Technologically advanced, cost-effective cardiovascular monitoring systems are increasingly in demand in Europe. New analysis from Frost & Sullivan point out that the market will grow from $350.0 million in 2007 and to $491.3 million in 2014.
Two in one: atherosclerosis test for CV risk prediction
The ankle brachial index, a ratio of blood pressure measurements used to indicate the risk of peripheral artery disease and atherosclerosis, may be useful to improve the accuracy of cardiovascular risk prediction, according to a meta-analysis of previous studies.
Many more strokes
Even in 2004, the medical costs for the care of stroke patients in Germany came to 7.1 billion euro. The neurologist Tobias Neumann-Haefelin of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt and his colleagues have calculated the projected number of strokes in the German federal state of Hesse for the year 2050.
Cardiac rehabilitation by mobile phone
The Cardiomobile developed by the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation at Queensland University, Australia, contains a Mini ECG and a GPS system linked to a mobile phone via Bluetooth. That way heart patients can do rehabilitation exercises any place and any time they want to.
First magnetic navigation catheter intervention in child
Ten-year-old Tobias smiles brightly at the photographer. And so do the two physicians next to him. They have good reason to be proud as they were the first surgeons worldwide to treat a very serious congenital heart defect in a child by guiding a catheter with the help of a magnetic navigation system into small lung vessels.
Guide to treat patients with myocardial bridging
A research team at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the University of Texas Medical Branch and RWTH Aachen University in Germany has developed a new classification system devised to guide physicians treating patients with symptomatic myocardial bridging, published in the online edition of Cardiology.
Trends in image-guided therapy
For the third in his series of articles for European Hospital, 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 at the Faculty's Cardiology and Radiology and Nuclear Medicine departments for a round-table discussion on:
The 2nd National Russian Radiology Congress
Drawing together radiologists from all of Russia is a challenge - even more surprising is meeting the president of the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) and other well-known radiologists from the rest of Europe writes Meike Lerner, of European Hospital, who was at the 2nd National Russian Radiology Congress held in Moscow this May, to report on the hot topics in radiology over the eastern…
The Aachen-Maastricht Alliance
The RWTH Aachen University Hospital and the Maastricht University Hospital with their corresponding medical faculties are located centrally in the EU region Meus-Rhine.
Predicting the odds of heart attacks via ultrasound?
According to Prof Clemens von Birgelen, cardiologist on staff at the Thorax Centre of the Medisch Spectrum Twente in Enschede, who quoted from recent studies in his inaugural as a professor at the University of Twente at the beginning of June, this might be the case.
