Angina medicine could protect from carbon monoxide poisoning

Scientists funded by The British Heart Foundation have found that a commonly-used drug for treating angina could help protect the heart from damage caused by carbon monoxide poisoning. Carbon monoxide is a toxic gas that is difficult for people to detect - it can be produced by faulty gas appliances such as heaters. Poisoning from the gas causes 1.6 million deaths worldwide every year - it causes many people to develop heart rhythm problems called arrhythmias which, if left untreated, can be fatal. The team, made up of scientists from around the world but led by the University of Leeds, looked at how carbon monoxide triggers these arrhythmias. The researchers have improved our understanding of the damage that occurs in the heart's cells after breathing in carbon monoxide. This is vital if we are to develop effective treatments

Pfizer pays $60 million to settle government allegations of bribing doctors overseas

Pfizer has agreed to pay the US federal government $60 million to settle allegations that its employees bribed doctors and other foreign officials in Europe and Asia to win business and boost sales. The Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday that Pfizer's overseas subsidiaries made illegal payments to health care workers in China, Italy, Russia, Croatia and other Eastern European countries. As early as 2001, Pfizer sales representatives tried to conceal the bribes by recording them as legitimate business expenses for travel, entertainment and marketing purposes, the agency said. Pfizer develops and produces medicines and vaccines for a wide range of conditions including in the areas of immunology and inflammation, oncology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, neuroscience and pain - King 5.com

Nursery rhyme helps conduct CPR

The children's nursery rhyme "Row, row, row your boat" provides the right beat for chest compressions during cardiopulmonary resuscitation, a U.S. expert says. Dr. Ahamed Idris of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, in conjunction with the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium, said one administering CPR should perform between 100 and 120 chest compressions per minute for the best chance to restore a pulse. Compressions to the chest performed to the repeatable beat of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" [Gently down the stream, Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a dream] fall right in that crucial range, Idris said. "More or less compressions have a substantially lower chance of restoring a heartbeat," Idris, an emergency medicine expert, said in a statement. Idris said three steps can significantly improve the chance of saving the life of someone who suffers cardiac arrest -call 9-1-1; use both palms to press hard on the center of the chest, and repeatedly hum the "row, row, row your boat" tune while maintaining the compressions; do not stop until first responders arrive. The findings were published in the journal Circulation

Unnecessary Stent Lawyers announce website for cardiac patients (USA)

The attorneys at Morgan and Morgan have announced that a website has been launched for patients who have undergone a cardiac catheterization or stent procedure. The site was developed in light of reports that some doctors and hospitals may be unnecessarily ordering these procedures in an attempt to increase their own revenue. On the site, patients can learn more about these allegations and find out how they can determine whether their cardiac stent procedure was necessary. Visit the website at unnecessarystentlawyers.com

Scientists reveal how to mend a broken heart (with a stem cell)

Stem cell therapies offer the promise of radical new treatments for everything from Parkinson's to heart disease. However, researchers have so far struggled to control the cells, the master cells of the body which can be turned into any other cell. A US team now believes have have made a major step towards potential treatments for cardiac disease with the discovery of a molecule than can turn a stem cell into a heart cell. Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute, the Human BioMolecular Research Institute, and ChemRegen, Inc. have been searching for molecules that convert stem cells to heart cells for about eight years - and now they've found one. The researchers use a robot to sift through a large collection of drug-like chemicals and uncovered ITD-1, a molecule that can be used to generate unlimited numbers of new heart cells from stem cells. 'Heart disease is the leading cause of death in this country,' said Mark Mercola, director of Sanford-Burnham's Muscle Development and Regeneration Program and senior author of the study - Daily Mail

Minimally invasive approach during coronary artery bypass grafting surgery is safe and effective

New research shows that a minimally invasive approach used during coronary artery bypass grafting surgery is safe and effective, despite previous studies that linked endoscopic vein harvesting to a higher mortality rate. The research, published in the August 1, 2012 edition of The Journal of the American Medical Association, was an observational study of more than 235,000 patients included in The Society of Thoracic Surgeons National Database who underwent CABG surgery at 934 participating surgical centers. Investigators compared the three-year outcomes of patients undergoing EVH to the outcomes of patients undergoing the more invasive open vein harvesting (OVH) procedure and found no difference in mortality rates. "This study should alleviate concerns of patients and surgeons raised by past studies, and confirms the superiority of the EVH technique in terms of infection and wound complication rates that makes the minimally invasive approach the preferred method," said senior author Peter K. Smith, MD, Professor and Chief of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at Duke University in Durham, N.C.

U of S professor named 2012 Saskatchewan Medical Association Physician of the Year

Dr. Peter Kapusta, assistant professor at the University of Saskatchewan's College of Medicine, has been named the Saskatchewan Medical Association's Physician of the Year for 2012, receiving the award at the SMA Representative Assembly dinner held May 4 in Regina. "Dr. Kapusta has made outstanding contributions to the medical profession in our province for more than 30 years, including a substantial commitment to Saskatchewan's medical students and residents," says Dr. Janet Shannon, SMA president. "He is well-regarded for his compassion and professionalism, regularly going the extra mile to provide outstanding service and care to his patients and community." The Saskatchewan Medical Association first presented the SMA Physician of the Year Award in 2002 to pay tribute to the outstanding community contributions made by Saskatchewan physicians

Double-blind study tests heart-rhythm drugs (USA)

In the next three years, about 400 people on the brink of death will be part of a study for which they did not volunteer. In Clackamas and Washington counties in Oregon, and Clark County in Washington state, paramedics responding to unconscious people in cardiac arrest will administer CPR, then shock with a defibrillator. That's standard procedure, but if that doesn't work, a paramedic will pull open a mystery packet of unlabeled syringes for injection. Inside will be either one of two heart-rhythm medications, or a simple saline solution - saltwater. Neither paramedics nor doctors will be told what the syringes contained. Researchers later will use bar codes on the syringe to see if survival rates differ between them

Exercise may ease depression in heart failure patients

Heart failure can take a heavy psychological toll, with many patients developing symptoms of depression. But a new study suggests that an exercise plan can ease the melancholy, creating improvements in mood that are comparable to the effects seen with medication. For roughly a year, researchers followed more than 2,000 people treated for congestive heart failure at 82 medical centers in the United States, France and Canada. Those who were assigned to a moderate aerobic exercise program - about 90 to 120 minutes a week - saw greater reductions in symptoms of depression than those who were not enrolled in such a program. "I think this shows that for patients who have heart failure, exercise is certainly an excellent treatment," said Dr. James A. Blumenthal, a professor of medical psychology at Duke University Medical Center and the lead author of the study, which was published in The Journal of the American Medical Association. "It's something that most patients can engage in. It results in improved cardiorespiratory fitness, they have more stamina, and now we see that not only do they derive these physical benefits, but they also derive psychological benefits as well."

Cardiac arrest survival improving in U.S. hospitals: study

More people hospitalized for cardiac arrest are surviving compared with a decade ago, according to a U.S. study, possibly because of changes in hospital treatment and the way bystanders respond when somebody collapses. The study, which appeared in the journal Circulation, found that in 2008, the death rate among U.S. residents hospitalized after cardiac arrest was just under 58 percent - down from almost 70 percent in 2001. Researchers, led by Alejandro Rabinstein of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, based their findings on a national hospital discharge database that included nearly 1.2 million people hospitalized for cardiac arrest. They stressed that the numbers accounted only for cardiac arrest victims who survive long enough to be admitted to the hospital. Many people die before then

Brown fat fuels fight against obesity

Experts may have found a new method for assessing adipose tissue function that could be used in the fight against obesity. Thermal imaging of the head, neck, and shoulder area on exposure to a "cool challenge" can indicate the site and position of brown adipose tissue (BAT), the tissue that expends more heat energy than any other type in the body. "Potentially, the more brown fat you have or the more active your brown fat is you produce more heat and as a result you might be less likely to lay down excess energy or food as white fat," explained lead author Michael Symonds (Nottingham University, UK) in a press statement. Currently, the main methods of assessing BAT include positron-emission tomography (PET), computed tomography (CT) scanning, and/or tissue scanning, but these techniques are expensive and require either the administration of radiopharmaceuticals or tissue sampling, explains the team

Building a 'heart patch' (UK)

The British Heart Foundation has awarded two new grants from its Mending Broken Hearts Appeal fund, at a combined cost of more than £500,000. Each funded project holds promise of helping find a way to repair hearts damaged by a heart attack. The two sets of scientists - one at the University of Cambridge, and the other at University College London - are both trying to develop a 'heart patch' to fix to a damaged heart. A 'patch' with the right layout of heart muscle cells, held together by proteins and supporting cells, could form part of a future treatment for some people with heart failure. But making a patch is not easy, because heart muscle has a much more complex structure than many other types of tissue. Different types of cells and supporting structures have to be positioned and connected in precisely the right way to form healthy working tissue

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."

Physical Activity - The Lancet (UK)

As London counts down the final days before the beginning of the 2012 Olympic Games, The Lancet publishes a Series on physical activity, including a new analysis that quantifies the global impact of physical inactivity on the world's major non-communicable diseases. The Series will also review current levels of physical activity and trends worldwide, why some people are active and why some are not, evidence-based strategies for effective physical activity promotion, and how a multi-sector and systems-wide approach that goes way beyond health will be critical to increase population-levels of activity worldwide

People who walk a lot have lower type 2 diabetes risk: study

Among people at high risk for diabetes who get very little exercise, those who manage to walk more throughout the day are less likely to actually develop the blood sugar disorder, according to a U.S. study. Earlier studies have shown that walking more is tied to a lower risk of diabetes, but few studies have looked into precise measures of how many steps people take each day, said Amanda Fretts, lead author of the study and a researcher at the University of Washington in Seattle. “Our finding wasn’t surprising given that other studies have shown that even light activity is associated with a lower risk of diabetes,” Fretts wrote in an email to Reuters Health