Mayo Clinic study finds electric car does not interfere with implanted cardiac devices

A Mayo Clinic study has concluded that patients with implanted cardiac devices such as pacemakers and defibrillators can safely drive or ride in an electric car without risk of electromagnetic interference. The study, titled "Hybrid Cars and Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators: Is It Safe?" is the first of its kind to address the interaction between these devices and electric cars. In some cases, implanted devices may sense signals from electrical or magnetic objects and misinterpreted them as potential distress coming from the patient's heart. The increasing prevalence of electric and hybrid cars, one of the fastest growing segments of the American automotive industry, prompted Mayo Clinic cardiac investigators to study the potential risk of the effects of EMI on patients with implantable devices. Mayo Clinic researchers used implantable devices from the three major manufacturers and a 2012 Toyota Prius hybrid in the study. Electric and magnetic fields were measured in six positions: from the driver's seat, front passenger seat, the left and right rear seats and in front of and behind the car from the outside

LDL Apheresis Program (USA)

Loyola University Medical Center is offering LDL apheresis, a treatment that cleanses the patient's blood of LDL (bad) cholesterol. Loyola is among a handful of centers in the Midwest - and the only academic medical center in Chicago - to offer LDL apheresis. Once every two weeks, a patient spends two to four hours connected to an apheresis unit that processes the blood. The machine separates the blood and plasma, then removes about 70 to 80 percent of the patient's LDL (low density lipoprotein) cholesterol. The cleaned blood is returned to the body. The good HDL cholesterol is not removed. Loyola's multidisciplinary LDL Apheresis Program is intended for patients who have been unable to control cholesterol with lifestyle changes and medications. They include patients with coronary heart disease who have LDL cholesterol greater than 200 mg/dL, and patients without coronary artery disease who have LDL levels greater than 300 mg/dL. Research shows that LDL apheresis improves vascular function and can help patients avoid a heart attack or stroke

Volunteering can help stave off heart disease

Volunteering can help develop a healthier cardiovascular system and stave off cardiac disease in as little as 10 weeks, says a US study. The research bolsters the evidence that devoting time and energy to a cause not only makes people feel good, it also impacts physical wellbeing positively. Hannah Schreier, from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, said: "The volunteers who reported the greatest increases in empathy, altruistic behaviour and mental health were the ones who also saw the greatest improvements in their cardiovascular health." Schreier led the study looking at the effect of volunteering on adolescents' physical health while working at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, the Journal of American Medical Association Paediatrics reports. The study involved 106 teenagers from an urban, inner-city Vancouver high school who were split into two groups, a group that volunteered regularly for 10 weeks and a group that was wait-listed for volunteer activities. Researchers measured the students' body mass index (BMI), inflammation levels which affect heart's health and cholesterol scores before and after the study. The volunteer group of students spent one hour per week working with elementary school children in after-school programmes in their neighbourhood. After 10 weeks they had lower levels of inflammation and cholesterol and lower (body mass index) BMIs than the students who were wait-listed. Schreier said: "It was encouraging to see how a social intervention to support members of the community also improved the health of adolescents."

Elsevier and the ACC announce the launch of a new journal JACC: Heart Failure

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, and the American College of Cardiology (ACC) have announced that the American College of Cardiology (ACC) journals' portfolio has been expanded with the launch of JACC: Heart Failure. This new journal will better meet the demands and challenges of treating what is now the most rapidly increasing category of cardiac disease

Number of people diagnosed with diabetes reaches three million (UK)

The number of people in the UK who have been diagnosed with diabetes has reached three million for the first time, equivalent to 4.6 per cent of the UK's population, according to new analysis carried out by Diabetes UK and Tesco. The figure represents an increase of 132,000 people diagnosed with diabetes over the last year. A further 850,000 people are thought to have undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes. Experts have warned that unless more is done to prevent Type 2 diabetes and more help is given to help those with the condition, the increase could see the NHS burdened with unsustainable costs, which has huge implications for public health. Every year in England and Wales, 24,000 people with diabetes die earlier than expected, a situation that is expected to get even worse without urgent action

Improving cardiac arrest survival rates (Canada)

Researchers at St. Michael's Hospital and Sunnybrook along with paramedics in the Greater Toronto Area are taking part in two of the largest clinical trials in the world aimed at finding ways to improve survival rates of people who suffer a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital. One trial examines whether cooling a patient's body temperature in the ambulance en route to a hospital improves the rate of cooling in the hospital, which has been proven to improve survival and reduce brain damage. The other seeks to determine the best drug to give people to treat the heart rhythm that signals they are about to go into cardiac arrest. "The survival rate from cardiac arrest has increased five-fold in regions where paramedics are participating in these resuscitation trials, which highlights incredible improvements in quality of care," said Dr. Laurie Morrison, an emergency medicine physician at St. Michael's. Dr. Morrison heads Rescu, the largest research team of its kind in Canada, dedicated to improving out-of-hospital resuscitation. Rescu is conducting the trials along with Toronto-area base hospitals (Sunnybrook Centre for Prehospital Medicine and Lakeridge Health Central East Prehospital Care Program), and associated paramedic and fire services. About 15,000 to 20,000 Canadians suffer cardiac arrest outside of a hospital every year. During a cardiac arrest, the heart stops beating, and unless it is restarted within minutes, the person usually dies. Although immediate resuscitation can be lifesaving, more than 90 percent of people who experience a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital will die before reaching a hospital or soon after

Fujitsu prototype smart cane makes you want to get old

The classic walking cane has remained pretty much unchanged for millenia. Really just a walking stick with an ergonomic handle, it's hard to come up with novel improvements to the cane. Fujitsu engineers, nevertheless, decided to integrate a bunch of technology into a cane to see what they could come up with. The intriguing result is a device that uses GPS to guide the user who now doesn't have to use a smartphone with the other hand. It also integrates a small heart rate meter right into the handle and, because there's wireless connectivity, it can call loved ones automatically if the rate is too high. Also, the handle monitors the ambient temperature and humidity and counts walking steps

Ability of brain to protect itself from damage revealed (UK)

The origin of an innate ability the brain has to protect itself from damage that occurs in stroke has been explained for the first time. Oxford University researchers hope that harnessing this inbuilt biological mechanism, identified in rats, could help in treating stroke and preventing other neurodegenerative diseases in the future. "We have shown for the first time that the brain has mechanisms that it can use to protect itself and keep brain cells alive," says Professor Alastair Buchan, Head of the Medical Sciences Division and Dean of the Medical School at Oxford University, who led the work. The researchers report their findings in the journal Nature Medicine and were funded by the UK Medical Research Council and National Institute for Health Research. Stroke is the third most common cause of death in the UK. Every year around 150,000 people in the UK have a stroke. It occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off. When this happens, brain cells are deprived of the oxygen and nutrients they need to function properly, and they begin to die. "Time is brain, and the clock has started immediately after the onset of a stroke. Cells will start to die somewhere from minutes to at most 1 or 2 hours after the stroke," says Professor Buchan

A good snooze, regularly, can help the heart stay healthy

Cutting back on sodium and increasing physical activity are not the only ways to improve heart health - a good night's sleep can also help promote cardiovascular health. One expert at the University of Alabama at Birmingham says not getting enough sleep can have harmful heart-health effects. The ideal amount of sleep is between six to eight hours, said cardiologist Alan S. Gertler, M.D., associate professor of medicine in UAB's Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and part of UAB's Heart & Vascular Services. "Deep, high-quality sleep is needed to lower heart rate and blood pressure, which reduce stress on the heart," Gertler explained. Heart rate and blood pressure also rise and fall during rapid eye movement (REM) in response to dreams. According to the National Institutes of Health, those variable rates also contribute to making the heart healthier. "Without enough sleep, there is an increase in blood pressure and stress hormones, lower glucose tolerance and weight gain," Gertler said. "All of these factors can increase the risk of coronary artery disease."

Cardiac nurse program to be launched (USA)

Central Maine Medical Center and the Central Maine Medical Center College of Nursing and Health Professions are launching a specialty cardiac nurse residency program. The program will provide an educational pathway for graduate nurses to gain the knowledge and experience needed to provide acute cardiovascular nursing care. Scheduled to begin in June 2013, it will foster professional development based on the individual nurse resident's learning needs. The nurse resident will begin the program under the guidance of a primary preceptor. Program content, which includes instruction from College of Nursing faculty, consists of a core curriculum, standards of practice, and a cardiac/critical care course. After completing the 12-week program, the nurse residents will continue their critical care orientation under the guidance of a mentor for a year. The program will be offered for positions in the CMMC Intensive Care Unit and the Central Maine Heart and Vascular Institute Single-Stay Unit

Cardiac arrest survival rate tops in Ottawa

If you're going to have a heart attack in Ontario, your chance of surviving such an occurrence outside of the hospital is best in Ottawa, says the city's top paramedic Anthony DiMonte. "We're over 12 per cent, we're more than double the Ontario average," said DiMonte during a presentation to city hall Thursday. "From being one of the worst communities to have a cardiac arrest in, you're now sitting in a community that's probably one of the best." Before the city began installing defibrillators in its public recreation centres, the chances of surviving a heart attack before paramedics arrived was just two per cent. But now there are more than 800 automated external defibrillators in the city

Prevention and rehabilitation are cornerstones of cardiac care

The results of a study conducted by Sherry L. Grace, Ph.D., of York University, Toronto, and colleagues in the Cardiac Rehabilitation Care Continuity Through Automatic Referral Evaluation (CRCARE) Investigators reported that one year after being treated for coronary artery disease, 1,809 patients referred to cardiac rehabilitation had attended 82.8 percent of sessions during the year following hospitalization. That's good news as the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, pointed out that cardiac rehabilitation offers a comprehensive approach to chronic disease management by addressing risk factors such as hypertension, obesity, smoking, unhealthy diet and a sedentary lifestyle. It backed that statement by emphasizing that it has been proven that, compared with usual care, cardiac rehabilitation reduces illness and death by about one-fourth over one to two years. Cardiovascular rehabilitation is an essential component of the interventional cardiology services provided by South Nassau Communities Hospital's Center for Cardiovascular Health. After diagnosing, treating and confirming that treatments are working, the center's cardiologists refer patients to the Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Center in Oceanside. The center provides the compassionate care, rehabilitation and counseling that patients need to achieve the best possible recovery

The European Commission gives $16M to heart failure consortium

The European Commission has awarded a grant of almost $16 million to the Heart Omics in Ageing (HOMAGE) consortium project, which aims to prevent heart failure through identifying more specific biomarkers for heart failure and then developing methods for earlier diagnosis and -omic profile targeted treatment of elderly patients at risk of heart failure. Heart failure incidence is rising worldwide, due both to an aging population and increasing prevalence of risk factors, including obesity, diabetes and hypertension. Diagnosis of heart failure in elderly people with co-morbidities can be difficult, and the HOMAGE consortium, directed by Faiez Zannad, MD, PhD, of the Centre d'Investigation Clinique Pierre Drouin Inserm in Nancy, France, is researching more accurate methods of heart failure diagnosis in these patients through validating potential biomarkers for heart failure. Researchers will identify promising heart failure biomarker candidates in blood and cross-analyze genomics, proteomics and other mechanisms in a cohort of 30,000 patients. HOMAGE will assess the predictive value of the biomarkers for heart failure and other common co-morbidities prevalent in the elderly population. A clinical trial to identify novel treatments for heart failure based on the patient’s biomarker profile is planned

CARG Newsletter - March 2013

The CARG Newsletter - March 2013 is now available online

Obesity crisis risks making Britain 'fat man of Europe', warns report

The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges is calling for fewer fast food outlets near schools and a complete ban on unhealthy food in hospitals in a report which warns the crisis is at risk of becoming "unresolvable". By 2050 more than half of adults will be seriously overweight and tough measures are needed to prevent the situation spiralling completely out of control, the UK's 220,000 doctors warn. They want action from the Government, National Health Service, councils, food firms, and parents in order to stop "generation after generation falling victim to obesity-related illness and death", according to The Guardian newspaper. Doctors are united in viewing obesity - the consequences of which include diabetes, heart disease and cancer - as the single greatest public health crisis facing the country, the report says. The epidemic means that people are dying needlessly from avoidable diseases, it adds. The report criticises both current and previous governments for "piecemeal and disappointingly ineffective" attempt to deal with the problem, given that one in four adults in England is obese and these figures are set to climb to 60 per cent of men, 50 per cent of women, and 25 per cent of women over the next 37 years. The statistics have made the UK the "fat man of Europe", leading the academy to draw up a 10-point-plan at the end of their year long consultation on the topic