Until recently, TAVI, the minimally invasive procedure in which a replacement valve is inserted inside a diseased valve has been mostly prescribed for patients too weak to face open heart surgery – largely involving those in the 80-plus age group. Today, due to greater longevity plus advancing skills that result in risks reduction, TAVI is increasingly prescribed for patients in their 70s and…
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden can now report the results of a unique pilot project where drones were used to deliver defibrillators to real-life alerts of suspected cardiac arrest. The drones were dispatched in more than a fifth of the emergencies and arrived on target and ahead of the ambulance in most cases.
Alongside the worldwide increase in longevity, inevitably with chronic health conditions rising, cardiovascular procedures and OR utilisation have surged. Thus the efficient and safe performance of surgeries is even more important. The intraoperative use of mobile C-arms increases accuracy, improving clinical outcomes, which can significantly reduce revision rates and thus overall healthcare…
People who work night shifts are at increased risk of developing an irregular and often abnormally fast heart rhythm called atrial fibrillation (AF), according to research published in the European Heart Journal. The study is the first to investigate the links between night shift work and AF. Using information from 283,657 people in the UK Biobank database, researchers found that the longer and…
Scientists have grown beating heart cells to attempt to identify drugs to prevent Covid-19-related heart damage. Concerns over the extent of cardiac damage among Covid patients emerged during the coronavirus pandemic and there are also suggestions that the impact on cardiomyocytes could contribute to the symptoms of long Covid. To explore these issues, a research team at the University of…
Could machine learning (ML) help to predict sudden cardiac death (SCD)? According to Dr Sanjiv Narayan, Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, California, many exciting studies are using ML to predict sudden death in ways not previously possible. ‘Complex data, such as MRI geometry, very large electronic health records or continuous data streams from wearables, are difficult to probe…
A nationwide US study has shown that the rate of opioid-related cardiac arrests has steeply risen and is now on par with the rate of cardiac arrest from other causes. The research is presented at ESC Congress 2021. Opioid use disorder, which includes dependence and addiction, affects more than two million people in the US, while opioid overdose is the leading cause of death for those aged 25 to…
Women remain underrepresented in cardiovascular clinical trials despite guidelines and legal requirements developed almost 30 years ago to ensure broader inclusivity. This lack of representation can limit availability of treatment data on the number one killer of women worldwide—cardiovascular disease.
Researchers at the Medical Faculty of the University of Freiburg have developed an improved therapeutic approach to resuscitate people after cardiac arrest - often without neurological complications. Around 50,000 people suffer sudden cardiac arrest in Germany every year. When occurring outside a hospital, the chances of survival are only ten percent. Survivors often suffer from severe permanent…
Efforts to understand cardiac disease progression and develop therapeutic tissues that can repair the human heart are just a few areas of focus for the Feinberg research group at Carnegie Mellon University. The group's latest dynamic model, created in partnership with collaborators in the Netherlands, mimics physiologic loads on engineering heart muscle tissues, yielding an unprecedented view of…
A study of more than 18 million pregnancies has shown a strong and graded relationship between women’s heart health and pregnancy outcomes. The research is published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). The researchers examined the presence of four risk factors for cardiovascular disease in women prior to pregnancy: unhealthy…
A national network of mentors and female role models, created by the British Cardiovascular Society (BCS), aims to encourage women to become cardiologists and end male dominance and negative and sexist comments.
Clinician well-being is imperative to providing high-quality patient care, yet clinician burnout continues to increase, especially over the last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Four leading cardiovascular organisations are calling for global action to improve clinician well-being in a joint opinion paper.
Athletes appear to be almost two and half times more likely than non-athletes to experience irregular heart rhythms (atrial fibrillation), suggests new research. In addition, those athletes involved in mixed sports such as football, rugby or netball appear to have the highest risk when compared with athletes taking part in endurance sports such as Nordic skiing, orienteering or rowing.
Medical monitoring tech company Umana Medical announced a collaboration with the Preventive Cardiology and Medical Prevention, Center of Cardiology at the University Medical Center Mainz and Bayer AG on a clinical study (MyoMobile study) to explore a novel real-time remote cardiac monitoring device in patients with heart failure.
Nanoelectronics and digital technologies company Imec presents a proof-of-concept for determining arterial stiffness, a risk marker for cardiovascular diseases such as stroke and heart failure, and monitoring blood pressure. Imec’s approach uses an ultrasound sensor to measure the central pulse wave velocity. Measuring pulse wave velocity closer to the heart is also a more reliable proxy for…
Researchers at Northwestern and George Washington (GW) universities have developed the first-ever transient pacemaker — a wireless, battery-free, fully implantable pacing device that disappears after it’s no longer needed. The thin, flexible, lightweight device could be used in patients who need temporary pacing after cardiac surgery or while waiting for a permanent pacemaker. All components…
Statin use among patients with heart failure is associated with a 16% lower risk of developing cancer compared with non-statin users during an average of four years of follow-up. This is according to new research published in the European Heart Journal. In addition, the study found that statin use was associated with a 26% reduced risk of dying from cancer over the same period.
A cutting-edge imaging technique that creates 4D flow images of the heart has been carried out for the first time in the UK at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH).
A study showed that women are underrepresented in oncology, neurology, immunology, cardiology, hematology; whereas men underrepresented in trials related to mental health, musculoskeletal disease and trauma, and preventive care.
Women are missing out on appropriate cardiac care because guidelines and medications often fail to take into account gender and conditions that specifically affect the female population. Women are also underrepresented in clinical trials for new cardiac therapies.
New artificial intelligence (AI) technology to scan for heightened blood vessel inflammation can calculate a person’s risk of death from Covid-19 and its variants.
A simple blood test could help doctors spot deadly damage to the aorta, the body’s largest blood vessel, according to research funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) presented at the British Cardiovascular Society conference.
Researchers funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) have developed biodegradable microspheres that can be used to deliver heart cells generated from stem cells to repair damaged hearts after a heart attack, in research presented at the British Cardiovascular Society conference.
Switching off a heart muscle protein could provide a new way for drugs to combat heart failure in people who’ve had a heart attack, according to research led by the University of Cambridge and published in the journal Nature. There is an unmet need to find drugs that can successfully improve the heart’s ability to pump blood efficiently after it’s been damaged following a heart attack.…