Camera offers new view of the heart (USA)

Colquitt Regional Medical Center, Georgia, USA, purchased a new D-SPECT Nuclear Myocardial Perfusion camera for use in the cardiology department. The new camera allows for advanced high-speed imaging of the heart while lowering the radiation dosage. According to the size of the patient, the system alters the time length of the scan and the dose administered to produce a sharper image quality each time the equipment is used for cardiac screenings. "This camera is ten times faster than the previous system we used," said David Spence, director of diagnostic imaging. "Images can be obtained in about 12 minutes compared to the older system that took 40 minutes allowing for better patient comfort and time for the scan acquisition of the heart. The images are of exceptionally high quality and allow for better interpretation of the patient’s heart." The system is designed like a chair with a camera that is stationary to the patient reducing motion. Patients with breathing difficulties can be scanned upright for all images. The system is also designed to accommodate patients weighing up to 500 pounds

Englishman wakes up from stroke speaking fluent Welsh

Alun Morgan, 81, was evacuated to Wales during the Second World War but left 70 years ago. During his time there he was surrounded by Welsh speakers but never learned the language himself. He left the country aged 10 and lived his life in England and recently suffered a severe stroke. But when Mr Morgan regained consciousness three weeks later, doctors discovered he was speaking Welsh and could not remember any English. It is thought that the Welsh Mr Morgan heard as a boy had sunk in without him knowing and was unlocked after he suffered the stroke. Mr Morgan, who is retired and lives with his wife Yvonne in Bathwick, Somerset, is now being taught to speak English again. "I'd not lived in Wales since I was evacuated there during the war. Gradually the English words came back, but it wasn't easy," he said

Alcohol used to induce heart attack to save man's life (UK)

Doctors saved a patient's life by inducing a controlled heart attack using neat alcohol to kill off an area of muscle. Ronald Aldom, 77, was suffering from a life threatening heart rhythm called ventricular tachycardia (VT) - which occurred as a result of a previous heart attack. A team of surgeons tried to treat the condition using standard procedures but were unable to safely perform them. The team decided to treat Mr Aldom, from Portishead near Bristol, with "ethanol ablation". The treatment has only been conducted a handful of times in the UK to treat VT, Dr Johnson said. The procedure involves passing a catheter to the heart from the groin which identifies which part of the heart the dangerous rhythms are coming from. A tiny balloon is then blown up in the heart artery supplying that area and a small amount of absolute alcohol is injected into the artery to produce a small controlled heart attack. This kills the area of the heart muscle causing the problem allowing the heart's rhythm to return to normal

Winter 2013 Leisure Guide (Saskatoon)

The City of Saskatoon Leisure Guide is your community source for a variety of arts, culture, and recreational activities throughout the year. Select from Drop-in Programs, which do not require pre-registration and provide the public with access to the City’s recreation facilities and to instructor-led classes, or from Registered Programs, which include an instructor who leads the participants through a pre-defined set of activities

Men with big beer bellies likely to have weaker bones: study (USA)

Men with excessive fat around their abdomen, commonly known as a "beer belly," are at an elevated risk for heart disease and Type 2 diabetes, and now researchers are adding osteoporosis to the list of potential hazards. More than 37 million American men over age 20 are obese, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. While obesity is associated with a host of other health problems - hypertension, high cholesterol, asthma, sleep apnea and joint diseases - it has been widely accepted that overweight men were at a lower risk for bone loss. "Not true," said Dr. Miriam Bredella, a radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and an associate professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School. "Everyone thinks of osteoporosis as a disease of women. Studies all focused on women, and men were always thought to be fine. We specifically wanted to look at young men." Bredella and her team of researchers evaluated 35 obese men with a mean age of 34 and a mean body mass index, a measure of body fat, of 36.5. The men were divided into two groups: one with mainly subcutaneous fat, which lies just beneath the skin and is spread all over the body, and the other with mostly visceral or intra-abdominal fat, located deep under the muscle tissue in the abdominal cavity

TV in bedrooms may boost kids' risk of fat, disease (USA)

Kids who have TVs in their bedrooms are twice as likely to be fat and nearly three times as likely to be at risk for heart disease and diabetes as those who don't, according to a new study that renews concerns about health and screen time. Specifically, youngsters ages 5 to 18 who had TVs in their rooms were up to 2.5 times more likely than others to have bigger waists and more fat mass. Those who watched TV more than five hours a day were at twice the risk for fat around their internal organs, a dangerous precursor for disease. "It's really troubling to see these kids with fat around their heart and liver," said Amanda Staiano, a scientist with the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. Staiano and her colleagues knew that previous studies had shown a link among bedroom TVs, longer TV viewing and being overweight or obese, which affects two-thirds of U.S. youth. But in a country where 70 percent of kids have TVs in their rooms, according to a 2010 study, Staiano said they wanted to understand exactly where the kids were adding fat, and whether they were at risk for conditions such as heart disease and diabetes. "We wanted to see kind of a more precise relationship between TV and health," said Stainao, who studied 369 children and teens in Louisiana. Her findings are reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine

February is Heart Month (Canada)

Heart Month is the Heart and Stroke Foundation's key opportunity to reach millions of Canadians in February and alert them to the risks of heart disease and stroke. Today, heart disease and stroke take one life every 7 minutes and 90% of Canadians have at least one risk factor. Our hearts and bodies are fragile and no one is safe from the risk of heart disease and stroke. Yet, there is so much we can do to protect them. This is why it is so critical that we rally together in raising funds for life-giving research that can help extend the lives of all Canadians. Volunteers are the face and the voice of the Heart and Stroke Foundation and Heart Month is a critical time when we depend on you to share our message. One of the most important initiatives in Heart Month is door-to-door canvassing. Our team of volunteers canvasses neighborhoods across Canada raising vital funds to give Canadians longer, fuller lives. This is your opportunity to create a movement in your community - a movement toward better health. This broad, National campaign was inspired by a fundraising initiative called "Heart Sunday." The concept was adopted in British Columbia in the mid-1950s and then in Ontario in 1958. The funds raised from Heart Month are critical to supporting the Foundation's life-giving research and initiatives that help lengthen the lives of people in communities all over Canada - Phone: (306) 244-2124

Heart Health for Canadians: The Definitive Guide By Beth Abramson

Heart Health for Canadians is the definitive book on heart disease for the thousands of Canadian women and men who are diagnosed each year. It takes a full-spectrum approach to heart disease, covering prevention, symptoms, diagnosis, treatments, recovery, new research and alternative therapies. It educates Canadians on how to be better advocates for themselves and for their loved ones by offering support and guidance through our complicated healthcare system. And it offers more complete information on women's heart health. You never want a family member to be diagnosed with heart disease; but if it happens, you want Heart Health for Canadians by your side - HarperCollins

Smoking rots brain more than high blood pressure and being overweight

Smoking rots the brain, causing brain damage that affects memory, learning and reasoning, a study has found. The research, by Kings College London, found smoking is worse for mental health than having high blood pressure or being overweight. The research; cardiovascular risk factors and cognitive decline in adults aged 50 and over: a population-based cohort study, found the risk of having a heart attack or stroke was associated with cognitive decline. According to the study, published in the journal Age and Ageing, smokers over the age of 50 who had high blood pressure were at greatest risk of suffering a stroke. This group also performed poorly on cognitive tasks that tested memory recall, verbal fluency and attention. A spokesperson from the Alzheimer's Society said: "We all know smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels and a high BMI is bad for our heart. This research adds to the huge amount of evidence that also suggests they can be bad for our head too

CPR Makes You Undead (Canada)

In the case of a sudden cardiac arrest, every second counts. About 7,000 cardiac arrests occur in the province each year, according to data from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario. A person's chances of survival can be up to 75 per cent if rapid, early response is started at the scene using cardiopulmonary resuscitation and automated external defibrillation. Unfortunately, the rate of bystander participation seldom exceeds 30 per cent and AEDs are used in less than 10 per cent of cases. The survival rate for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests is less than 6 per cent, Heart and Stroke estimates based on its most recent data. It also notes the probability of survival declines by up to 10 per cent with every minute that passes. Last month, Heart and Stroke launched a public awareness campaign dubbed CPR Makes You Undead, which aims to increase bystander involvement in emergency and cardiac arrest situations. The goal of the campaign is to raise public awareness and promote hands-only CPR, foundation health promotion and public affairs director Mark Holland said. "We must do better and we can, if we all learn CPR."

Researchers modify ostrich artery for possible use in heart surgeries (Japan)

Scientists said that they have modified ostrich carotid arteries that can eventually be developed for use in human patients undergoing coronary bypass surgery. Researchers at the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center Research Institute said the long arteries found in the necks of the birds will one day be implanted in heart surgery patients instead of using patients' own vessels, as in conventional surgeries. The modified ostrich vessels are about 2 millimeters in diameter and about 30 centimeters long. The researchers said it is the first time such a long and thin vascular graft with a small inside diameter has been developed. When thin blood vessels are replaced with thicker ones, blood flow slows and the vessels become vulnerable to clotting. Atsushi Mahara and other researchers at the institute's biomedical engineering department had been studying the possibility of using the blood vessels of sharks and conducted experiments on laboratory rats. But when they applied an ostrich carotid artery this spring, its thinness and length were a perfect fit, the researchers said

CARG Newsletter - December 2012

The CARG Newsletter - December 2012 is now available online

Cholesterol test fasting "largely unnecessary" (Canada)

Fasting before getting a blood test of cholesterol levels may be unnecessary, a new Canadian study suggests. Current guidelines suggest taking blood samples for lipid tests like high-density lipoprotein or HDL cholesterol after fasting for nine to 12 hours, but the requirement isn't always practical for patients. Fasting for routine blood work may discourage patients from going for the tests and blood labs may have long wait times in the morning that inconvenience people even more. In the Archives of Internal Medicine, Dr. Davinder Sidhu and Dr. Christopher Naugler of the University of Calgary looked at how long 209,180 people in Calgary fasted and their lipid results. Last year, the city's laboratory service changed its policy allowing samples to be processed regardless of the fasting time. "We found that fasting time showed little association with lipid subclass levels in a large community-based cohort," the study's authors concluded. "This finding suggests that fasting for routine lipid level determinations is largely unnecessary."

CARG Christmas Parties 2012

The CARG Christmas Party in the Field House is scheduled for December 5, 2012, from 9:30am to 11:30am

The CARG Christmas Party at the Shaw Centre is scheduled for December 14, 2012, from 9:00am to 12 noon

"The clock is ticking for stroke patients" - Canada

Adults under the age of 50 are risking death or permanent disability far too often by not calling 9-1-1 or their local emergency number at the first sign of stroke, according to new data released by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Stroke Network. The rest of Canadians aren't doing much better. And that spells trouble because there are 50,000 strokes in Canada each year. "When it comes to stroke, there are two enemies: the clock and the clot," says stroke neurologist Dr. Michael Hill, who speaks on behalf of the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Stroke Network. "Canadians need to understand that the clock starts ticking at the first signs of a stroke, and every second of delay leads to more brain cell death and greater risk of death or disability. "The statistics - collected from about 10,000 patient charts at 295 hospitals across Canada - found that half of all adults under the age of 50 took longer than eight hours to arrive at a hospital emergency department. Across all age groups, women took slightly longer than men to arrive at hospital