Scan can predict heart attacks (UK)

Scientists have devised a way to scan for fatty deposits that cause heart attacks, bringing accurate prediction of risk one step closer. The breakthrough allows doctors to identify "ticking time bomb" patients by detecting fatty deposits in arteries and administering drugs before an attack takes place. It has been described by experts as a major step towards accurately predicting heart attacks and relies on technology used in cancer diagnosis which is already found in many hospitals. The discovery was made in a study researching whether a scanner could pick up the outlines of fatty "plaques" in arteries. The results are published in 'The Lancet' recently. Scientists tested two groups of patients - 40 people who had just suffered heart attacks and 40 others who had angina - and found the scans picked up affected areas. Problem points in blood vessels were highlighted on images of 90% of those scanned who recently suffered a heart attack. Close to half of the scans of patients with angina also successfully detected the fatty build-ups. The study is significant because there is no current way to find those people at highest risk from heart attacks. "We have developed what we hope is a way to 'light up' plaques on the brink of rupturing and causing a heart attack," explained researcher Dr Marc Dweck

Heart attacks in young women - not all have chest pain (Canada)

Chest pain is recognized as a symptom of heart troubles, but one out of five women aged 55 years or less having a heart attack do not experience this symptom, according to a study led by the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. The research findings, gathered from partner institutions across Canada including the University of British Columbia, are the first to describe this phenomenon in young women. The study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, has implications for emergency room healthcare professionals and for at-risk individuals, as seconds matter when it comes to the accurate diagnosis and treatment of heart attack. "We need to move away from the image of an older man clutching his chest, when we think about acute coronary syndrome (ACS - the umbrella term referring to heart attacks and angina), says senior author of the study, Dr. Louise Pilote, director of the Division of General Internal Medicine at the MUHC and McGill University and professor of medicine at McGill University. "The reality is that chest pain, age and gender are no longer the definers of a heart attack. Our study demonstrates that young people and women who come into the emergency without chest pain, but other telltale ACS symptoms such as weakness, shortness of breath and/or rapid heartbeats, are in crisis. We need to be able to recognize this and adapt to new standard assessments in previously unrecognized groups such as young women."

Spine injuries raise risk of heart attack or stroke

Canadian researchers say patients with spinal cord injuries have a higher risk of heart disease and stroke, similar to that of smokers, diabetics and the obese. The risk of cardiovascular disease was nearly 3 times higher for spinal cord patients, according to a study published in the journal Neurology. The risk of stroke was almost 4 times higher. "To put these values into context, the heightened odds ratios reported here are similar in magnitude to the estimated odds ratios in the general population for the relationship between smoking and myocardial infarction (heart attack)," wrote lead author Jacquelyn Cragg of the University of British Columbia. Cragg and her colleagues studied health data from over 60,000 people who participated in the 2010 Canadian Community Health Survey. From that sample, they identified 354 people who reported having both a spinal cord injury and a stroke, and 356 people who had a spinal cord injury and cardiovascular disease. While the research did not establish a cause for the higher risk profile, the authors noted that spine injuries can increase several risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as physical inactivity, high blood pressure, and chronic inflammation

Huge fall in deadly heart attacks (UK)

Heart attack deaths have halved in less than a decade, according to a major study of over 800,000 patients in England. The research has been extensively reported, with news sources suggesting a range of possible reasons, such as better treatments and a reduction in numbers of people smoking. As the study itself points out, many developed countries have seen reductions in heart-related death over the last 40 years, but it is unclear whether the trend is due to better treatment following a heart attack or steps designed to prevent heart attacks in the first place. This new study found that in England the death rate from heart attacks halved between 2002 and 2010. The researchers calculated that just over half this decline was caused by fewer people having heart attacks and just under half by more people who had heart attacks surviving. The study was carried out by researchers from the University of Oxford's Department of Public Health. The individual authors were funded by various institutions, including the Medical Research Council and the British Heart Foundation. Part of the research was funded by the National Institute for Health Research. The study was published in the peer-reviewed British Medical Journal. Newspapers generally covered the research accurately and appropriately

Stressed at work? Look out for your heart

People who have highly demanding jobs and little freedom to make decisions are 23 per cent more likely to have a heart attack compared with their less stressed out colleagues, according to research recently published. But lighting up a cigarette or remaining chained to your desk rather than getting out to do some exercise is far more damaging for your heart health, researchers said. A study of nearly 200,000 people from seven European countries found around 3.4 per cent of heart attacks can be attributed to job strain - a significant proportion, but far less than the 36 per cent attributable to smoking and 12 per cent put down to lack of exercise. For the study, which was published online in The Lancet medical journal, researchers analysed job strain in employees who had no previous coronary heart disease

Shift work takes a toll on heart

People who work the graveyard and other non-9-to-5 shifts may face a higher risk of heart attacks, a Canadian review suggests. Shift work disrupts our body clocks and can wreak havoc with work-life balance. But research on its association with health problems like high blood pressure, high cholesterol and Type 2 diabetes has been conflicted, partly because investigators use different methods, populations and definitions. Thursday's issue of the British Medical Journal includes what an Ontario-led team called the "largest synthesis of shift work and vascular risk reported to date."

Heart attack survivors living close to highways face higher 10-year death risk (USA)

Living close to a major highway poses a significant risk to heart attack survivors, reinforcing the need to isolate housing developments from heavy traffic areas, a Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center study concludes. Writing in the May 7 edition of Circulation, researchers found heart attack survivors living less than 100 meters or 328 feet from a roadway have a 27 percent higher risk of over within 10 years than survivors living at least 1,000 meters away. That risk recedes to 13 percent for those living between 200 and 1,000-meter or 656 to 3,277-feet from the roadway. "Living close to a highway is associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes in those with underlying cardiac disease," says Murray Mittleman, MD, DrPH, a physician in the CardioVascular Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of BIDMC's cardiovascular epidemiological research program. "Besides air pollution, exposure to noise could be a possible mechanism underlying this association." The Onset study of 3,547 heart attack survivors in 64 community hospitals and tertiary care medical centers recorded 1,071 deaths over 10 years. Of that total, 63 percent of the patients died of cardiovascular disease, 12 percent died of cancer and 4 percent expired from respiratory disease. Researchers analyzed factors such as personal, clinical and neighborhood-level characteristics such as income and education

Pain medication may hinder heart attack recovery, study finds

Giving heart attack patients pain relief may actually hinder their recovery, according to researchers who say the stabbing ache in the chest actually stimulates the body to repair itself. The pain signals stem cells to repair the damaged heart cells, it has been found. The study may help explain why heart attack patients given morphine are more likely to die and could lead to new approaches to treatment. Researchers at Bristol University found that a molecule involved in the sensation of pain is released from nerves in the heart during a heart attack. Called Substance P, it draws stem cells from the bone marrow to the area of heart muscle that has been starved of oxygen by the attack. Once there, the stem cells can create new blood vessels to supply fresh blood to the heart cells. The findings, from initial experiments in mice and early results in humans, were published in the journal Circulation

Men who love soda at higher risk for heart attack, say Harvard scientists (USA)

Experts have some not-so-sweet news for men who drink sodas and sugary drinks. Downing just one sugary beverage a day can up your heart attack risk by 20%, according to research published by Harvard scientists in the journal Circulation. The more soda or noncarbonated fruity drinks, the higher your risk. Two servings ups your heart risk by 42%. Drink a soda with all three meals? Your risk increases by 69%. The team of Harvard researchers found a strong correlation between sugary drinks and heart attack risk that held up even after factoring in smoking, physical activity, alcohol, family history and BMI. Volunteers who kicked their soda and sweet-drink habits experienced lower blood pressure. While this study didn't take diet soda into account, recent studies have linked artificially sweetened drinks to increased stroke and heart attack risk. While this research focused on men, researchers say, sweet drinks aren't good for women either. It's a problem that can easily be solved if people just stopped sipping the high calorie beverages and paid more attention to what they're imbibing, according to lead study author, Lawrence de Koning, a research fellow in the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. "The first thing to do is to reduce the intake of sodas and then eventually eliminate them," he said

Diet pop tied to heart attack, stroke risks: Study

Diet pop may benefit the waistline, but a new study suggests that people who drink it every day have a heightened risk of heart attack and stroke. The study, which followed almost 2,600 older adults for a decade, found that those who drank diet pop every day were 44 per cent more likely than non-drinkers to suffer a heart attack or stroke. The findings, reported in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, don't prove that the sugar-free drinks are actually to blame. There may be other things about diet-pop lovers that explain the connection, researchers say. "What we saw was an association," said lead researcher Hannah Gardener, of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. "These people may tend to have more unhealthy habits." She and her colleagues tried to account for that, Gardener told Reuters Health. Daily diet-pop drinkers did tend to be heavier and more often have heart risk factors like high blood pressure, diabetes and unhealthy cholesterol levels. That all suggests that people who were trying to shed pounds or manage existing health problems often opted for a diet pop over the sugar-laden variety

Heart attack rates down by 50% in the UK

National Health Service data shows mortality rate at half the 2002 level, with fewer people smoking and better NHS care contributing factors. The number of people dying from a heart attack has halved in the last decade, with falling rates of smoking, greater use of statins to lower cholesterol, and better NHS care thought to be behind the fall. Fewer people in England are suffering a heart attack, and fewer of those who do are dying as a result, according to research by Oxford University reported in the British Medical Journal. They used official NHS data on hospital admissions and mortality to study 840,175 men and women who between them had 861,134 heart attacks between 2002 and 2010. Overall, mortality rates among men fell by 50% and among women by 53%. The steepest falls in heart attacks were noted among middle-aged people. Rising rates of diabetes and obesity among younger people is thought to lie behind their not seeing the same dramatic drop. Professor Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation, which funded the study, said: "This impressive fall in death rates is due partly to prevention of heart attacks by better management of risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure and cholesterol and due partly to better treatment of heart attack patients when they reach hospital."

Heart attacks deaths halved in the last decade, experts say (UK)

The death rate from heart attacks in England has halved in the last decade, says an Oxford University study. The research, published in the British Medical Journal, looked at more than 800,000 men and women who suffered heart attacks between 2002 and 2010. They found that fewer heart attacks occurred in later years and, of those that did occur, fewer were fatal. Researchers say improvements in NHS care and better prevention measures have contributed to the decline. The Oxford researchers used national hospital and mortality data to analyse 840,175 men and women in England who had suffered a total of 861,134 heart attacks over eight years. Comparing 2002 with 2010, they found death rates falling by 50% in men (78.7 per 100,000 population to 39.2) and by 53% in women (37.3 per 100,000 to 17.7). A declining mortality rate was also seen in all age groups and for both sexes

Owning TV, car ups heart attack risk (Sweden)

Owning a car and TV was associated with an increased risk of heart attack, in a study involving 29,000 people in 52 countries, a Swedish researcher says. Lead researcher Claes Held of Uppsala University in Sweden and colleagues analyzed data from 1999 to 2003. One group of more than 10,000 middle-age men and women who had had a single heart attack was compared with a group of 14,000 who had no history of cardiovascular disease. Physical activity at work and during leisure time was divided into levels of exertion. The study, published in the European Heart Journal, found any kind of physical activity during leisure time was shown to be a plus - compared to doing almost nothing - with heart attack risk dropping 13 percent for mild activity and 24 percent for moderate or strenuous exercise. Heavy physical labor did not reduce risk at all. The study found 25 percent of the respondents in poorer and middle-income nations who owned a television and a car had an increased risk of heart attack, and two-thirds of those in rich nations who had a TV and car had an elevated risk of heart attack

Broken heart boosts risk of cardiac attacks: study

Grief over the death of a loved one can cause a huge spike in a person's risk of heart attack, especially in the early days after the loss, said a US study on Monday. The research tracked nearly 2,000 adults who survived a heart attack and found that among those who had just lost a loved one, the risk of a heart attack soared 21 times higher than normal in the first day. The risk rate remained six times higher than normal through the first week, and declined slowly over the course of the first month, said the findings in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. Intense grief can cause a host of symptoms that raise heart risks, including higher heart rate, blood pressure, stress hormone levels and blood clotting. Grieving people are also prone to lose sleep, miss medications and eat less, which can also boost cardiovascular risks

Eyelid marks warn of heart attack (Denmark)

Yellow markings on the eyelids are a sign of increased risk of heart attack and other illnesses, say researchers in Denmark. A study published on the BMJ website showed patients with xanthelasmata were 48% more likely to have a heart attack. Xanthelasmata, which are mostly made up of cholesterol, could be a sign of other fatty build-ups in the body. Cardiologists said the findings could be used by doctors to help diagnose at-risk patients. The research team at the Herlev Hospital in Denmark started following 12,745 people in the 1970s. At the start of the study, 4.4% of patients had xanthelasmata

Diesel fume particles 'could raise heart attack risks' (UK)

Chemical particles in diesel exhaust fumes could increase the risk of heart attacks, new research has suggested. Edinburgh University scientists found minuscule particles produced by burning diesel can increase the chance of blood clots forming in arteries. The blood clots can then lead to heart attacks or stroke. The team measured the impact of diesel exhaust fumes on a group of healthy volunteers at levels found in heavily polluted cities. The volunteers' reaction to gases found in diesel fumes, such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, were compared with their reactions to tiny chemical particles found in the exhausts. It was found that the particles, and not the gases, impaired the function of blood vessels - BBC

Drug makes hearts repair themselves (UK)

A drug that makes hearts repair themselves has been used in research on mice. The damage caused by a heart attack had previously been considered permanent. But a study in the journal Nature showed the drug, thymosin beta 4, if used in advance of a heart attack, was able to "prime" the heart for repair. The British Heart Foundation described repair as the "holy grail of heart research", but said any treatment in humans was years away. Due to advances in health care the number of people dying from coronary heart disease is falling. But those living with heart failure are on the rise - more than 750,000 people have the condition in the UK alone - BBC

Heart attack fear 'may worsen outcome', study suggests

People with an intense fear of dying during a heart attack could suffer a worse outcome, research suggests. London-led researchers asked 208 patients to rate their levels of fear following a severe cardiac event. People who reported they were most distressed during an attack had higher levels of chemical markers - linked to inflammation - in their blood. Writing in the European Heart Journal, the authors say heightened inflammation may lead to poorer long-term health. "Large inflammatory responses are known to be damaging to the heart, and to increase the risk of longer-term cardiac problems such as having another heart attack," said British Heart Foundation professor of psychology, Andrew Steptoe. The research, led by a team at Imperial College, found that patients who reported an intense fear of dying had raised levels of TNF alpha - a marker that has been linked to inflammatory processes in the body

Heart attacks 'are worse' if they happen in the morning

People who have a heart attack in the morning tend to fare worse than those who have one at other times of the day and night, experts have discovered. Heart attacks occurring between 0600 and noon are more likely to create a larger area of damaged heart tissue. The findings in Heart journal come from a study of over 800 patients in Spain. Experts say the body's natural sleep-awake cycle could explain the differences seen, but advise more research to confirm the findings - BBC

New heart attack jab even more effective than statins (UK)

British-based scientists have produced an antibody that reduces by more than 60 per cent the physical scarring of the heart and brain after an attack. The "milestone achievement" could also be used to stop the body attacking organ transplants. Professor Wilhelm Schwaeble, who carried out the work at Leicester University, said that it could potentially be the "biggest breakthrough ever" in the treatment of two of the biggest killers in Britain. Heart attacks and strokes are caused by blood flow being blocked by a clot or a bleed, starving parts of the body further down stream of oxygen. But most of the permanent damage is caused later – when circulation is eventually restored – and a "default of nature" which means the body's own defences attack the oxygen starved cells. This effect, which kicks in around nine to 12 hours after the attack or stroke, causes massive inflammation and more than 80 per cent of the permanent damage. It is this that often leads to death and massive reduction in the quality of life of stroke and heart attack survivors. Now the researchers at the University of Leicester have come up with an injection which they claim effectively stops the body attacking the oxygen starved cells. This allows them to start to oxygenate normally and the permanent damage is reduced significantly. The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences