Heart disease is the number one killer in the US and plaguing many other countries as well. Here is the 5 tips to keep your heart healthy.www.mesotheliomaslawyers.net

PITTSBURGH —

A device that has been used to keep former Vice President Dick Cheney’s heart functioning is now being used on patients in Pittsburgh.The device is being used on patients like Cheney, who have severe congestive heart failure, but are not candidates for transplants.At UPMC’s Artificial Heart Institute, it’s being referred to as a destination device, the destination being life.”What it does is take blood from the left ventricle — …… (more…)

Dr. Peter Fail, interventional cardiologist for Cardiovascular Institute of the South, discusses the latest non-surgical treatment using Mitral Valve technology through the Evalve research trial. This non-surgical procedure can replace the need for open heart surgery.

Dr. Peter Fail, interventional cardiologist for Cardiovascular Institute of the South, discusses the latest non-surgical treatment using Mitral Valve technology through the Evalve research trial. This non-surgical procedure can replace the need for open heart surgery.A very very use ful video about Herat Treatment.

Even controlling for the fact that people who don’t brush are more unhealthy, British scientists found that brushing your teeth twice a day reduces your risk of heart disease. Unlike all those bullshit cancer studies, this is real science. [SciAm]

via:Heart

Infants born with a severely underdeveloped heart who undergo a newer surgical procedure are more likely to survive their first year and not require a heart transplant than those who have a more traditional surgical procedure, according to a report by researchers supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), which is part of the National Institutes of Health. The study of 549 newborns, however, suggests that after the first year, the two surgical procedures for the relatively rare condition yield similar results.

The Single Ventricle Reconstruction (SVR) Trial is the largest clinical trial to compare treatments for congenital heart disease, and the first North American, multi-center, randomized trial of surgical therapy for congenital heart disease patients. Results are published in the May 27, 2010, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. An editorial accompanies the article.

Congenital heart disease is the most common birth defect. Every year, about 1 percent of babies are born with abnormally formed hearts. The normal heart has two pumping chambers called ventricles. The right ventricle pumps blood to the lungs, and the left ventricle pumps blood to the body. This trial studied babies born with a severe form of congenital heart disease in which babies are born with a functioning right ventricle and a small, underdeveloped, nonfunctioning left ventricle. The condition is sometimes referred to as hypoplastic left heart syndrome. Without treatment, these babies usually die shortly after birth.

The SVR Trial compared for the first time two surgical procedures that are commonly used to treat babies born with only the functioning right ventricle to determine whether one procedure improves outcomes more than the other. The SVR Trial was conducted at 15 North American clinical sites that are part of the NHLBI’s Pediatric Heart Network

“Rigorous comparison of patient outcomes is critical to fully understanding the risks and benefits of different interventions,” said NHLBI Acting Director Susan B. Shurin, M.D., a board-certified pediatrician. “To conduct meaningful clinical research on rare conditions, however, we need collaboration among multiple study sites. This study demonstrates that through consortia such as the NHLBI’s Pediatric Heart Network, we can accelerate our ability to provide needed evidence on the best ways to care for some of our most vulnerable patients.”

In general, three surgeries are needed to treat a single right ventricle. The first procedure, called the Norwood procedure, is usually performed within the first two weeks of life and is one of the highest risk procedures in congenital heart surgery. A shunt, or small tube, is implanted to provide a connection for blood to flow from the heart to the blood vessels in the lungs, or pulmonary arteries, so that blood can pick up oxygen and release carbon dioxide. Children later undergo a second surgery at 4 to 6 months of age, and a third procedure, known as the Fontan procedure, at 18 to 36 months. The operations are staged to allow the child to grow large enough that the corrective procedures can be performed. Heart transplantation may be required for children with single ventricles when surgery and other treatments fail…. (more…)

Columbia -

Crystal Johnson, M.D., is one of the newest physicians to join the staff at Providence Hospitals. Dr. Johnson is an OB/GYN specializing in high risk obstetrics, adolescent gynecology, and endocrine disorders who will practice at Providence Women’s Health located on the campus of Providence Northeast Hospital.

Dr. Johnson received her medical degree from the University of South Carolina and completed her residency

in obstetrics and gynecology at the University at Texas, Memorial Hermann Hospital, in Houston, Texas.  A native of Columbia, SC, Dr. Johnson earned her bachelor’s degree in biology at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia.  Dr. Johnson is a member of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Columbia Medical Society.

Providence Women’s Care is located at 114 Gateway Corporate Boulevard, Suite 335.  For more information or to make an appointment, call (803) 788-0268.  Providence Women’s Health, Providence Northeast Family Care, and Providence Internal Medicine are managed and operated by Augustine Health Group, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Providence Hospitals.

Providence Hospitals is a two hospital health care system with 304 licensed beds.  It is located in downtown Columbia and was founded by the Sisters of Charity of Saint Augustine in 1938. The facility is best known for the expertise in cardiac care it provides through Providence Heart & Vascular Institute, which is recognized statewide as a referral center for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease….. (more…)

ATLANTA – Many Americans with leaky heart valves soon might be able to get them fixed without open-heart surgery. A study showed that a tiny clip implanted through an artery was safer and nearly as effective as surgery, doctors reported Sunday.

The device is already on sale in Europe, and its maker, Abbott Laboratories, hopes to win approval to sell it in the United States next year. Elizabeth Taylor reportedly got one last fall — the 77-year-old actress told fans about it on Twitter.

About 8 million people in the U.S. and Europe have leaky mitral valves — the valve between the heart’s left upper and lower chambers. Not all are so bad they need treatment, but the worst cases can lead to heart failure over time.

In the study, six times more people who had surgery suffered complications during the next month than those who got Abbott’s MitraClip. Deaths, strokes and blood transfusions were less common with the device. The clip was not dramatically less effective than surgery after one year.

Doctors called the study a watershed — the first big test of repairing or replacing heart valves through arteries rather than drastic surgery.

The MitraClip is only for the mitral valve. Other devices for other heart valves are in late-stage testing, and many doctors believe they will transform how these conditions are treated in the near future.

“We have opened the door for a new therapeutic option for patients,” said Dr. Ted Feldman of NorthShore University Health System in Evanston, Ill.

He led the new study and gave results Sunday at an American College of Cardiology conference. The study was sponsored by Evalve Inc., which developed the device. Evalve was sold last year to North Chicago, Ill.-based Abbott, and Feldman consults for the firm.

Some surgeons were not convinced the device is close to surgery’s effectiveness, and said patients need to be studied for more than one year.

“It’s a partial victory for the device,” Dr. James McClurken, a surgeon at Temple University in Philadelphia, said of the result. McClurken also is the conference chairman.

The study used an outdated method of surgery that minimizes its true benefit, said Dr. J. Scott Millikan, a surgeon at the Billings Clinic in Montana.

“Clearly this is a very exciting technology,” but the study’s leaders “set the bar for success way too low” for the device, he said.

The mitral valve is like a saloon door that opens to let blood flow into the heart’s main pumping chamber. When the flaps of the door don’t swing completely shut, blood flows back into an upper chamber of the heart.

Medicines can ease symptoms but do not keep the valve problem from getting worse. Bad cases are treated with open-heart surgery: Doctors partly stitch the flaps together in the middle, allowing blood to flow on either side but keeping them aligned during each heartbeat….. (more…)

U.S. foreign policy should should rely more on diplomacy and “soft power,” Admiral Mike Mullen, chair of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a speech at Kansas State University on Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reports. ”U.S. foreign policy is still too dominated by the military - too dependent upon the generals and admirals who lead our major overseas commands and not enough on the State Department,” Mullen said, the AFP reports.

The news service continues: “Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary [Rodham] Clinton ‘have called for more funding and more emphasis on our soft power, and I could not agree with them more, the admiral said” (2/3).

In a “shift in thinking, Mullen said in his speech that policymakers now and in the future should consider the U.S. military not as a last-resort solution in a crisis, but as part of early American responses to conflicts and disasters,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “‘Military forces are some of the most flexible and adaptable tools available to policymakers,’ Mullen said. ‘Before a shot is even fired, we can bolster a diplomatic argument, support a friend or deter an enemy.’ Mullen emphasized that military power must be used alongside other government tools,” the newspaper writes (Barnes, 3/4)…. (more…)