Minimally Invasive Robotic Bypass Surgery Provides Health and Economic Benefits
Minimally invasive heart bypass surgery using a DaVinci robot means a shorter hospital stay and faster recovery for patients, as well as fewer complications and a better chance that the new bypass vessels will stay open. And, according to a University of Maryland study, robotic heart bypass surgery also makes good economic sense for hospitals. The study will be presented at the American Surgical Association on April 26, 2008.
Using a surgical robot increases the cost of each bypass case by about $8,000, according to Robert S. Poston, M.D., a cardiac surgeon formerly at the University of Maryland Medical Center who is the lead author of the study. He says those additional expenses, which are due to equipment and supplies, are offset by a shorter hospital stay, reduced need for transfusions and fewer post-surgical complications that would require a patient to be re-admitted to the hospital. Especially with high risk patients who have lung or kidney disease or other health problems, the researchers found that the minimally invasive, robotic approach saves costs.
Popularity: 35% [?]
April 28, 2008 | Filed Under Heart Surgery | Leave a CommentDevelopmental Changes in Adolescence Raise Men’s Heart Disease Risk
Normal developmental changes during the teenage years leave young adult men at higher risk of heart disease than their female counterparts, researchers report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
“Women’s protective advantage against heart disease starts young,” said Antoinette Moran, M.D., lead author of the study and professor and division chief of pediatric endocrinology and diabetes at the University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis.
Popularity: 20% [?]
April 26, 2008 | Filed Under Heart Disease | Leave a CommentHeart Derived Stem Cells Develop Into Heart Muscle
Dutch researchers at University Medical Center Utrecht and the Hubrecht Institute have succeeded in growing large numbers of stem cells from adult human hearts into new heart muscle cells. A breakthrough in stem cell research. Until now, it was necessary to use embryonic stem cells to make this happen. The findings are published in the latest issue of the journal Stem Cell Research.
The stem cells are derived from material left over from open-heart operations. Researchers at UMC Utrecht used a simple method to isolate the stem cells from this material and reproduce them in the laboratory, which they then allowed to develop. The cells grew into fully developed heart muscle cells that contract rhythmically, respond to electrical activity, and react to adrenaline.
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April 25, 2008 | Filed Under Heart Research | Leave a CommentHow Exercise Changes Structure and Function of Heart
For the first time researchers are beginning to understand exactly how various forms of exercise impact the heart. Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators, in collaboration with the Harvard University Health Services, have found that 90 days of vigorous athletic training produces significant changes in cardiac structure and function and that the type of change varies with the type of exercise performed. Their study appears in the April Journal of Applied Physiology.
“Most of what we know about cardiac changes in athletes and other physically active people comes from ‘snapshots,’ taken at one specific point in time. What we did in this first-of-a-kind study was to follow athletes over several months to determine how the training process actually causes change to occur,” says Aaron Baggish, MD, a fellow in the MGH Cardiology Division and lead author of the study.
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April 24, 2008 | Filed Under Heart Health | Leave a CommentMany African-Americans Have a Gene that Prolongs Life After Heart Failure
About 40 percent of African-Americans have a genetic variant that can protect them after heart failure and prolong their lives, according to research conducted at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and collaborating institutions.
The genetic variant has an effect that resembles that of beta blockers, drugs widely prescribed for heart failure. The new study offers a reason why beta blockers don’t appear to benefit some African-Americans.
Popularity: 19% [?]
April 23, 2008 | Filed Under Heart Failure | Leave a CommentMajor Discovery in the Treatment of Aortic Valve Stenosis
A team of scientists from the Université de Montréal and the Montreal Heart Institute Research Centre, led by Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif, has completed an important study that show how a new type of medication can lead to an improvement in the aortic valve narrowing.
This type of treatment based on raising high-density lipoproteins (HDL), the so-called good cholesterol level in patients suffering from aortic valve stenosis, could potentially transform the treatment approach of this disease, notably by avoiding open heart surgery. Study results have been published on-line in the British Journal of Pharmacology.
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April 22, 2008 | Filed Under Heart Disease | Leave a CommentHeart Valve Replacement Without Surgery!
Interventional cardiologists at Rush University Medical Center now offer a minimally-invasive transcatheter valve replacement procedure for patients with congenital heart disease that doesn’t involve open heart surgery.
Rush is one of three sites taking part in the investigational device exemption (IDE) feasibility study of minimally-invasive pulmonic valves and successfully implanted the first three patients enrolled in the trial on Thursday, April 17.
Popularity: 18% [?]
April 21, 2008 | Filed Under Heart Surgery | Leave a CommentPreventing Heart Disease in Kidney Patients
The estimated 19 million Americans living with chronic kidney disease (CKD) face a high risk of death from cardiovascular disease. Recent studies have shown that a main source of this cardiovascular risk is CKD patients’ high levels of blood phosphate.
Now researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have demonstrated that high blood phosphate directly stimulates calcification of blood vessels and that phosphate-binding drugs can decrease vascular calcification. That means drugs that reduce phosphate levels could help protect CKD patients from cardiovascular disease, according to the authors of the study, which is available online in advance of print publication in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
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April 21, 2008 | Filed Under Heart Disease | Leave a CommentSaliva Can Help Diagnose Heart Attack
Early diagnosis of a heart attack may now be possible using only a few drops of saliva and a new nano-bio-chip, a multi-institutional team led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin reported at a recent meeting of the American Association for Dental Research.
The nano-bio-chip assay could some day be used to analyze a patient’s saliva on board an ambulance, at the dentist’s office or at a neighborhood drugstore, helping save lives and prevent damage from cardiac disease. The device is the size of a credit card and can produce results in as little as 15 minutes.
Popularity: 14% [?]
April 19, 2008 | Filed Under Heart Attack | Leave a CommentMigraines Increase the Risk of Heart Attacks
New research shows women who have weekly migraine are significantly more likely to have a stroke than those with fewer migraines or no migraine at all, but those with lower migraine frequency may face increased risk of heart attacks. The research will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 60th Anniversary Annual Meeting in Chicago, April 12–19, 2008.
The Women’s Health Study involved 27,798 women health professionals in the United States who were 45 and older. The women did not have cerebrovascular disease at the beginning of the study and were followed for an average of 12 years. During that time, 706 cerebrovascular events, 305 heart attacks, and 310 ischemic strokes occurred.
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April 18, 2008 | Filed Under Heart Attack | Leave a Comment
