admin | July 30, 2009
Survey also finds wish for less hassle
By Henry L. Davis
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Patients in the Buffalo Niagara region want a health care system that treats them more like people, not conditions, that presents less of a hassle and that helps inform their medical decisions, according to a major survey released Tuesday.
The project involved gathering the opinions of more than 1,700 people across the region and is the first of its kind in the nation to undertake such an intensive review of consumer perspectives in health care.
Category: Buffalo Heart Health, Studies |
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admin | July 29, 2009
I’m sure that many of you read about the study showing that Crestor, a popular statin drug manufactured by AstraZeneca, has been found to confer an additional and potentially even greater benefit than its ability to lower cholesterol. Researchers, funded by AstraZeneca, wanted to explain why half of the people who have heart attacks and strokes also have low cholesterol. They set out to determine whether inflammation, as measured by a C-reactive protein test (CRP), was an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Not surprisingly, they found that it was. They also found that Crestor lowered inflammation. Now, the study’s researchers and others are recommending that anyone with inflammation (elevated CRP) take a statin to prevent heart disease–even those who are healthy and not at risk for heart disease. My advice? Buyer beware!
Category: Medicine, Studies |
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admin | July 28, 2009
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The U.S. is likely to face a severe shortage of heart surgeons in the next 10 years, say representatives from medical schools and thoracic surgeons’ groups.
Writing in the journal Circulation, Dr. Atul Grover of the Association of American Medical Colleges in Washington, DC and colleagues point out that the number of active cardiothoracic surgeons in the U.S. “has fallen for the first time in 20 years.”
More than half of today’s cardiothoracic surgeons are older than 50 years, and more than 15 percent are between the ages of 65 and 74 years, the researchers note.
Category: Angio/Stent, Bypass Surgery, Studies |
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admin | July 28, 2009
MONDAY, July 27 (HealthDay News) — Even though cardiac rehabilitation has been shown to guard against future heart trouble once a cardiovascular event has landed someone in the hospital, only 56 percent of these patients are referred for the therapy, a new study finds.
Despite national guidelines that say hospitalized patients with a qualifying cardiovascular disease event should be referred to outpatient cardiac rehabilitation before hospital discharge, the study demonstrates this doesn’t happen often enough, the researchers noted.
“Cardiac rehabilitation improves clinical outcomes, but is widely underutilized,” said researcher Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Category: Cardio Rehab, Studies |
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admin | July 27, 2009
WESTBURY, N.Y. — Vasomedical, Inc. (”Vasomedical”) (OTC: VASO.OB), a world leader in the noninvasive treatment of cardiovascular diseases, today announced that Medicare has increased reimbursement payment rates for EECP([R]) therapy for 2008. The new rates, recently published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), are effective immediately for the first six months of 2008 and result in a new national average physician fee payment level of $156.16 per session for EECP([R]) therapy — an increase of 6.2% over the 2007 payment rate. This increase results in a total national average physician fee payment rate of $5,465.60 for a typical 35-hour course of therapy. Changes in the national average physician fee payment for 2008 were a result of the rollback of the planned decrease in the physician dollar conversion factor and an increase in the practice expense portion of the Relative Value Units for EECP([R]) therapy.
Category: External Counterpulsation |
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admin | July 27, 2009
By LOIS BAKER
Published: July 22, 2009
A collaboration involving physicians, researchers, graduate students and undergraduate students from three prominent regional institutions is intent on improving heart health in Western New York, an area with a heart disease death rate that is twice the national average.
The collaboration, which took shape in 2005, involves UB, Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center and Niagara University (NU), and converges at The Heart Center of Niagara (HCON), part of Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center in Niagara County, where rates of cardiovascular disease and mortality from the disease are the greatest in the five-county region.
Category: Diagnostic Tests, Studies |
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admin | July 22, 2009
July 15 (Bloomberg) — A widely used method for reducing pain and infections after heart bypass surgery increased the rate of heart attacks and deaths after three years compared with an older, conventional technique, researchers said.
Patients who underwent an endoscopy to collect healthy veins from the body to graft them to blocked coronary arteries during heart surgery were 22 percent more likely to have heart attacks, repeat surgeries or to die within three years than those who had a more invasive vein harvesting procedure, Duke University researchers reported today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Category: Bypass Surgery, Studies |
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admin | July 22, 2009
International Multicenter Study Led by the University of Pittsburgh Published in New England Journal of Medicine and Presented at American Diabetes Association 69th Scientific Sessions
NEW ORLEANS, June 7, 2009 – There is no difference in mortality among patients with type 2 diabetes and stable heart disease who received prompt bypass surgery or angioplasty compared to drug therapy alone, according to a landmark study focused exclusively on patients with both conditions. The study, which was led by investigators at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, published in the June 11 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the American Diabetes Association 69th Scientific Sessions, also found that while prompt bypass in patients with more severe heart disease did not lower mortality, it lowered their risk of subsequent major cardiac events.
Category: Angio/Stent, Bypass Surgery, Medicine, Studies |
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admin | July 14, 2009
DUBAI: Drinking just one cup of black tea everyday might protect against cardiovascular disease, a new research has found.
According to the study conducted at University of L’Aquila in Italy and supported by the Lipton Institute of Tea, black tea consumption improves blood vessel reactivity and reduces blood pressure and arterial stiffness, indicating a notably better cardiovascular health profile.
Using a group of 19 healthy men (mean age 33), the researchers assigned the participants to one of five prescribed intakes of the tea over five periods lasting one week each.
Category: Studies |
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admin | July 14, 2009
By Julie Steenhuysen
Monday, 8 June 2009
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Diabetics with stable heart disease do just as well taking drugs alone as getting quick angioplasty or bypass surgery to open blocked heart arteries, U.S. researchers said on Sunday.
They said patients advised to have angioplasty and a heart stent to restore blood flow and ease chest pain could safely wait and give drugs a chance to work.
But those with more severe disease sent for more invasive heart bypass surgery might be able to avoid a future heart attack if they have the surgery right away.
Category: Angio/Stent, Medicine, Studies |
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