Heart Disease: Overview, Causes, Risk Factors, Treatment, Prevention
Heart failure linked to thinner bones and fractures
Heart failure is associated with a 30 percent increase in major fractures and also identifies a high-risk population that may benefit from increased screening and treatment for osteoporosis, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
Osteoporosis and heart failure are common, chronic and costly conditions that share common etiologic factors like older age, post-menopausal status and diabetes. Previous studies have suggested that heart failure may predispose a patient to fractures not only because it increases incidence of falling, but because both heart failure itself and its medical treatments can lead to loss of bone mass.
“Our study demonstrates for the first time that heart failure and thinning of bones go hand in hand,” said Sumit Majumdar, MD, of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and lead author of the study. “Understanding the mechanism between heart failure and osteoporosis might lead to new treatments for both conditions.”
|
|
Elevated Glucose Associated with Undetected Heart Damage
A new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests that hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) injures the heart, even in patients without a history of heart disease or diabetes. Researchers found that elevated levels of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c), a marker for chronic hyperglycemia and diabetes, were associated with minute levels of the protein troponin T (cTnT), a blood marker for heart damage. The high-sensitivity test they used detected levels of cTnT tenfold lower than those found in patients diagnosed with a heart attack. The findings, which are published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, suggest that hyperglycemia may be related to cardiac damage independent of atherosclerosis.
“Hyperglycemia and diabetes are known to be associated with an increased risk for heart attack and coronary disease and our study sheds some light on what may be happening,” said Elizabeth Selvin, PhD, MPH, senior author of the study and associate professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Epidemiology. “Our results suggest that chronically elevated glucose levels may contribute to heart damage.”
For the study, the researchers followed 9,662 participants from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study. None of the participants had coronary heart disease or history of heart failure. Higher levels of HbA1c were associated in a graded fashion with elevated levels of high-sensitivity cTnT. This relationship was present at HbA1c levels even below the threshold used to diagnose diabetes. Using conventional tests, troponin T can be detected in 0.7 percent of the population and is associated with heart attacks and death. With the high-sensitivity cTnT test, low levels of troponin were found in 66 percent of the study population.
|
|
Omega-3 fatty acids tied to lower heart arrhythmia risk
Older adults who had the highest blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids, most commonly found in fish, were 30 percent less likely to later develop an irregular heartbeat than peers with the lowest blood levels of omega-3s, according to a U.S. study.
Up to nine percent of U.S. residents will develop atrial fibrillation by the time they reach their 80s, according to some estimates. The heart rhythm abnormality can lead to stroke and heart failure.
There are few treatments for the condition and they largely center on preventing strokes with blood-thinning drugs.
|
|
How to Prevent 500,000 Heart Attacks a Year
Why is cardiovascular disease still the number one killer in the Western World when risk factors are well known and risk-reduction strategies are widely available?
The Screening for Heart Attack Prevention and Education (SHAPE) Task Force has an answer. This group of leading cardiologists says that focusing on the identification and treatment of known risk factors is ineffective at identifying individuals at greatest risk for heart attack and stroke. Instead, they say, a prevention policy based on identifying cardiovascular disease (CVD) long before symptoms appear would be far more effective at identifying vulnerable patients and preventing the consequences. It’s estimated that initially, 50 million people could qualify for screening.
What’s wrong with current guidelines?
Current guidelines do not recognize nonobstructive coronary atherosclerosis as a risk equivalent for coronary artery disease, even though most heart attacks are caused by nonobstructive plaques.
|
|
Edwards says new heart valve data encouraging
Edwards LifeSciences Corp on Monday said patients who received the company’s Sapien replacement heart valve through an incision between the ribs fared better in a new study than an earlier small group of patients who got the valve.
The earlier data, released in November on 104 high-risk patients implanted using the transapical approach through the ribs, showed traditional open-heart surgery produced better results.
Data for an additional 822 patients, presented Monday at a meeting of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, showed lower mortality rates than for the original Sapien group. Mortality was 8.2 percent at 30 days and 23.6 percent at one year in the larger group, compared with 8.7 percent at one month and 29.1 percent at one year for the earlier group, Edwards said.
|
|
Deaths from heart attacks halved in last decade
The death rate from heart attack in England has halved in the last decade, claims a research paper published today in the British Medical Journal.
Compared with earlier years, the study found there were fewer heart attacks in the last decade and fewer of these were fatal.
Several studies have already investigated changes in deaths from heart attack in many countries around the world, but reasons for the decline in deaths in England are still not known. Researchers from the University of Oxford set out to identify the possible causes of this reduction.
Using national hospital and mortality data, they looked at 840,175 men and women in England who had suffered from a total of 861,134 heart attacks between 2002 and 2010. Overall, the death rates for heart attacks fell by 50% in men and 53% in women.
|
|
Rapid urbanisation as well as cultural habits explain Gulf states’ rise in heart disease prevalence
Sophia Antipolis, 25 January 2012: European Society of Cardiology extends its scientific activities beyond Europe and into the emerging regions of the world
While the rapid improvement in socio-economic conditions is thought responsible for the high rates of cardiovascular disease in the Gulf states, deep-rooted cultural factors also play a part. “We’re sitting on a time bomb,” says Professor Hani Najm, Vice-President of the Saudi Heart Association, whose annual conference begins Friday 27 January. “We will see a lot of heart disease over the next 15 to 20 years. Already, services are saturated. We now have to direct our resources to the primary prevention of risk factors throughout the entire Middle East.”
World Health Organization figures show that up to 60% of males in Arab countries and up to 70% of females are overweight and obese. Prevalence rates of diabetes and hypertension are around 25%, while inactivity rates among the over-20s are even higher. But the explanation, says Professor Najm, is not just rapid urbanisation and ubiquitous travel by car. There are, in addition, many social and cultural barriers to exercise, especially among women, who find it difficult to find the opportunities and encouragement to take organised exercise.
|
|
High fructose consumption by adolescents may put them at cardiovascular risk
Evidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk is present in the blood of adolescents who consume a lot of fructose, a scenario that worsens in the face of excess belly fat, researchers report.
An analysis of 559 adolescents age 14-18 correlated high-fructose diets with higher blood pressure, fasting glucose, insulin resistance and inflammatory factors that contribute to heart and vascular disease.
Heavy consumers of the mega-sweetener also tend to have lower levels of cardiovascular protectors such as such as HDL cholesterol and adiponectin, according to researchers at the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University.
These dangerous trends are exacerbated by fat around their midsection, called visceral adiposity, another known risk factor for cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The association did not hold up for adolescents with more generalized, subcutaneous fat.
|
|
Plant compounds tied to fewer heart deaths
Older adults who get a moderate amount of certain plant compounds in their diets are less likely to die of heart disease or stroke, a large study finds.
The research, on nearly 100,000 older U.S. adults, found that those getting the most flavonoids in their diets were less likely to die of heart disease or stroke over the next seven years than those who ate the least flavonoids.
The compounds are found in a range of plant foods, including many fruits (like berries, citrus and apples) and vegetables (like kale, spinach and broccoli), nuts, soy, dark chocolate, tea and wine.
|
|
Optimism about heart risks may be a good thing
Men who believe they are at low risk of a heart attack may in fact live longer than those with a more pessimistic outlook, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that of more than 2,800 adults followed for 15 years, men who thought they were at lower-than-average risk of a heart attack were 70 percent less likely than other men to die of heart disease or stroke—even with their objective risks taken into account. This relationship was not seen among women though.
The findings, published in the Annals of Family Medicine, suggest that a dose of optimism may be helpful in controlling heart disease risk. An awareness of one’s heart disease risk factors can certainly be a good thing. But problems may arise when people become fearful about their odds of suffering a heart attack, according to lead researcher Dr. Robert E. Gramling, of the University of Rochester in New York.
|
|
|
