Posts tagged as:

heart

Depression is bad for your heart

October 30, 2009

Originally published in Journal Watch Psychiatry
by Steven Dubovsky, MD
And attaining remission significantly improves mortality risk in patients with acute coronary syndromes.

Depression is common after myocardial infarction (MI), and medical outcomes are worse in depressed patients. These researchers addressed long-term survival in a 6.7-year follow-up study of 361 patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) and [...]

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Are we underusing aldosterone antagonists in congestive heart failure patients?

October 25, 2009

Originally published in Insidermedicine
Less-than one third of eligible patients being discharged from hospital with heart failure are being prescribed guideline-recommended treatment, even though the hospitals are participating in a program aimed at improving compliance with treatment guidelines, according to research published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Why doctors should reconsider ordering a CRP to screen patients for heart disease

October 23, 2009

The CRP, or C-reactive protein, is a test that many doctors use to screen for heart disease.
And indeed, studies have associated an elevated level with an increased risk of coronary artery disease. But there is little data showing that reducing the CRP level saves lives. That hasn’t stopped both doctors and patients from [...]

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Do heart attack patients benefit from an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD)?

October 17, 2009

Originally published in Insidermedicine
Implanting a cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) is no better at saving lives than simply providing optimal medical therapy for individuals who suffer damage to the heart from a heart attack, according to research published in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Did the 1918 flu pandemic increase the risk of heart disease?

October 5, 2009

Originally published in MedPage Today
by Michael Smith, MedPage Today North American Correspondent
Men who were in utero during the peak of the 1918-1919 flu pandemic were at increased risk of heart disease when they reached their 60s, 70s, and 80s, researchers said.
In those men, the rate of heart disease was more than 23% higher than [...]

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Will there really be an impending shortage of cardiologists?

September 28, 2009

by Larry Husten, Ph.D.
There can be little doubt that the lethal combination of aging baby boomers, the obesity epidemic, and the growing success of medical and interventional therapies for CV disease (resulting in more and more survivors of major events) is going to produce a flood of cardiovascular disease in the coming decades, and cardiologists [...]

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How to protect yourself from abdominal aortic aneurysms

September 22, 2009

by Mark Adelman, MD
While diseases like prostate cancer and heart disease have become household concerns, abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA), the 10th leading cause of death in men age 55 and older, have been overshadowed by more prominent diseases for far too long. It’s time we pull back the curtain and take a closer look [...]

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Is the flu a heart attack risk factor?

September 22, 2009

by Todd Neale, Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Flu appears to act as a trigger for myocardial infarction and cardiovascular death, a review of the literature showed.
All observational studies included in the review found an association between times when influenza viruses were circulating and increases in cardiovascular death, according to Charlotte Warren-Gash, MBChB, of University College [...]

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Are cardiologists going to take their reimbursement frustrations out on primary care residents?

September 11, 2009

It’s no secret that, in an attempt to increase the pay of primary care doctors, Medicare is going to run in serious resistance from the specialists. In this article from Bloomberg, for example, we’re seeing backlash from cardiologists.
What caught my attention was how cardiologists in residency programs may now harbor resentment against primary care [...]

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New troponin tests to better diagnose a heart attack

August 27, 2009

by Crystal Phend, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today
A generation of new, more sensitive troponin assays has improved hospitals’ ability to diagnose a heart attack to a point as early as the time of emergency department presentation, two separate studies affirmed.
In one multicenter study, a sensitive troponin I assay had an early diagnostic accuracy of [...]

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How to make industry influence transparent in continuing medical education

August 25, 2009

by Larry Husten, Ph.D.
A recent hearing of the Senate Aging Committee on continuing medical education (CME) should scare anyone who might need to see a doctor in the next few years. But you don’t need to be a Washington policy wonk to discover that there’s a huge problem with CME.
Just walk into the lobby of [...]

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Do lacrosse players have a higher rate of sudden cardiac death?

August 14, 2009

Surprisingly, lacrosse is the fasting growing youth sport in the country.
MedPage Today reports a recent study from Pediatrics that showed that lacrosse players have a disproportionally higher rate of commotio cordis, which is ventricular fibrillation caused by blunt chest trauma.
43 percent of lacrosse deaths can be attributed to the condition, compared to 27 percent in [...]

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What do primary care physicians and cardiac surgeons have in common?

August 12, 2009

They’re both going to be scarce.
Along with primary care, cardiothoracic surgeons are projected to be in short supply, according to a report in MedPage Today. A study found in Circulation suggested that fewer medical students are pursuing the field, leading to a “shortage of at least 1,500 surgeons or 25% of the likely [...]

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Can you escape a family history of heart disease?

August 12, 2009

With the new treatments and medications available to treat heart disease, it sometimes appears that a strong family history of heart disease can be overcome.
That’s not always the case.
In this piece from The New York Times, Michael Winerip does all the right things, including exercising, closely following up with a cardiologist, and undergoing stress tests [...]

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Online cardiac surgery simulations for aspiring heart surgeons

August 11, 2009

Here are three cardiac surgery simulations that will bring out the inner heart surgeon in all of us.
The first is the most intense, complete with a dramatic background heartbeat. It’s Virtual Open Heart Surgery:

For something more cheery and less scary, you can try this Heart Operation simulation from the UK:

And if that’s still too [...]

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Should heart disease screening tests be covered by insurance?

July 27, 2009

Tremendous controversy surrounds the screening for cardiac disease.
The USPSTF does not recommend heart screening tests for the general population, like a routine EKG or exercise stress test. Texas, however, takes the opposite approach. They recently passed the Texas Heart Attack Prevention Bill (via Schwitzer), “mandating health-benefit plans to provide coverage for certain screening [...]

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