By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, April 10 (HealthDay News) — Minor changes in the results of a commonly used heart test — an electrocardiogram, or EKG — translate into a 35 percent increased risk of heart events, such as heart attacks, hospitalizations for chest pain or the need for heart surgery, in people over 70, according to new research.
For people with major abnormalities in their EKG, the risk of having a heart event is even higher, compared to people with normal tests.
TUESDAY, April 10 (HealthDay News) — Black people with high blood pressure are twice as likely to suffer sudden cardiac death than whites or other racial groups who suffer hypertension, according to a new study.
Researchers found this was true regardless of blacks’ other risk factors, such as age, gender, family history, weight, diabetes or pre-existing heart disease.
MONDAY, April 9, 2012 (Health.com) — Fish oil supplements, which contain omega-3 fatty acids believed to promote heart health, may not benefit people who have already had a heart attack or stroke, according to a new review of previously published studies.
The review, which appears this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, covers 14 clinical trials that included more than 20,000 people with a history of cardiovascular disease. After pooling and re-analyzing the trial data, the researchers found no differences in the risk of new cardiac events or heart-related death in people taking fish oil supplements versus placebo. Read More
WEDNESDAY, April 4 (HealthDay News) — Large amounts of lifetime exposure to traumatic stress — even when it doesn’t result in post-traumatic stress disorder — boosts inflammation levels in heart disease patients, a new study suggests.
The findings are important because it’s known that heart disease patients with higher levels of inflammation tend to fare worse, according to the researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and the San Francisco VA Medical Center.
WEDNESDAY, March 28 (HealthDay News) — A drink or two per day may help lower a man’s odds of death in the two decades following a heart attack, a new study suggests.
The research, which appears online March 28 in the European Heart Journal, included more than 1,800 American men who survived a first heart attack between 1986 and 2006 and were followed for up to 20 years. During that time, 468 of the men died.
TUESDAY, March 27 (HealthDay News) — The screenings European athletes must undergo to detect possible heart conditions before they are allowed to participate in sports should include race-specific criteria, a new study suggests.
The current screening guidelines — which are used throughout Europe to help doctors interpret the results of electrocardiograms (ECG) — are based entirely on white athletes and could falsely identify many black athletes as at risk for sudden cardiac death. These false-positive results could lead to the wrongful disqualification of healthy black athletes, the researchers cautioned. U.S. athletes are not required to undergo ECGs.
TUESDAY, March 27 (HealthDay News) — Angioplasty — a procedure to open blocked arteries — can be performed safely and effectively at community hospitals that don’t have on-site cardiac surgery units, according to a new study.
The study included nearly 19,000 patients who had elective angioplasty either at a facility with a cardiac surgery unit or at one of 60 community hospitals that didn’t have on-site cardiac surgery but met certain requirements.
By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, March 27 (HealthDay News) — Patients over the age of 65 who have severe coronary artery disease fare better with bypass surgery than with minimally invasive angioplasty, a large, new study indicates.
Although there was no significant difference in mortality after one year, patients who had undergone bypass surgery had a 21 percent reduced risk of dying after four years compared to those who had received angioplasty, the researchers found.
TUESDAY, March 27, 2012 (Health.com) — Older people with heart disease who undergo non-emergency procedures to restore blood flow to their heart generally have better long-term survival odds with bypass surgery than with angioplasty, according to new research published online in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study included about 190,000 men and women over age 65 who had bypass surgery or angioplasty—a far less invasive procedure—between 2004 and 2008. One year after the procedures, the survival rates for both groups hovered just under 94%. At the four-year mark, however, 84% of the bypass patients and 79% of the angioplasty patients were still alive. Read More
By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, March 26 (HealthDay News) — Most people who go to the emergency room with chest pain aren’t having a heart attack, but it can take hours or days to make a definitive diagnosis.
However, a new study finds that a special kind of CT scan given in the emergency room seems to identify a heart attack faster than traditional methods, so patients can be sent home safely sooner.
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