Science Today

The risk of coronary heart disease in middle age is moderately higher for men and women who grew up in adverse family settings, according to a new analysis of medical records and surveys of more than 3,500 people. For all the ills that result from bad parenting, new evidence from an epidemiological study of thousands of people suggests coronary heart disease (CHD) might be added to that list. "We often think about how the early family psychosocial environment influences the mental health of kids," said Eric Loucks, assistant professor of epidemiology in the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. "The fact that it may be important for chronic diseases, like heart disease, hasn't been thought of as much." Loucks' newly published analysis of the health records and childhood descriptions of 3,554 adults has found an association between certain kinds of childhood mistreatment and a moderately elevated risk of CHD in middle age. A paper describing th...

An international team of scientists -- from the Max-Planck-Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (Göttingen, Germany), Cornell University (Ithaca, New York) the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France), the University Medicine Göttingen (Germany), the Rochester Institute of Technology (USA), and the Institut Non-Linéaire de Nice (France) -- has developed a new low-energy method for terminating life-threatening cardiac fibrillation of the heart. They have shown that their new technique called LEAP (Low-Energy Anti-fibrillation Pacing) reduces the energy required for defibrillation by more than 80% as compared to the current conventional method. Their discovery opens the path for the painless therapy of life threatening cardiac fibrillation. The scientists describe their results in the current issue of Nature. In a healthy heart, electrical pulses that propagate across the heart muscle in an orderly fashion control the organ's movements: at regular intervals the heart's ...

Mechanical pumps to give failing hearts a boost were originally developed as temporary measures for patients awaiting a heart transplant. But as the technology has improved, these ventricular assist devices commonly operate in patients for years, including in former vice-president Dick Cheney, whose implant this month celebrates its one-year anniversary. Prolonged use, however, has its own problems. The power cord that protrudes through the patient's belly is cumbersome and prone to infection over time. Infections occur in close to 40 percent of patients, are the leading cause of rehospitalization, and can be fatal. Researchers at the University of Washington and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center have tested a wireless power system for ventricular assist devices. They recently presented the work in Washington, D.C. at the American Society for Artificial Internal Organs annual meeting, where it received the Willem Kolff/Donald B. Olsen Award for most promising research in...

If a person's blood becomes too thick it can damage blood vessels and increase the risk of heart attacks. But a Temple University physicist has discovered that he can thin the human blood by subjecting it to a magnetic field. Rongjia Tao, professor and chair of physics at Temple University, has pioneered the use of electric or magnetic fields to decrease the viscosity of oil in engines and pipelines. Now, he is using the same magnetic fields to thin human blood in the circulation system. Because red blood cells contain iron, Tao has been able to reduce a person's blood viscosity by 20-30 percent by subjecting it to a magnetic field of 1.3 Telsa (about the same as an MRI) for about one minute. Tao and his collaborator tested numerous blood samples in a Temple lab and found that the magnetic field polarizes the red blood cells causing them to link together in short chains, streamlining the movement of the blood. Because these chains are larger than the single blood cells, they...

All these years we were under the impression that consumption of fish would help humans in better heart health, but new study has shown that its not real. Study done showed that there is no difference in heart failures or health between the people who consume fish regularly and those who don't. I personally feel this depends on the fish they consume. The study is published on 30 September in the October issue of the European Journal of Heart Failure. "Scientists and health authorities are increasingly persuaded that the intake of fish - even in small amounts - will protect against the risk of fatal myocardial infarction," said study investigator Dr Marianne Geleinjse from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. "However, there is no strong evidence that eating fish will protect against heart failure. One study has suggested that this might be so, but we could not confirm it in our cohort study of older Dutch people." Heart failure is by far today's single ...