New drug therapy cuts risk of second heart attack
Harvard researchers have found a new treatment for heart attack that provides greater hope for the roughly one in four patients whose heart arteries remain blocked even after standard drug treatment....
View ArticlePeople live longer at higher altitudes
The high life is a healthy life, at least in Greece. Residents of a village at an altitude of 3,100 feet suffered fewer heart attacks and lived longer than people in two nearby lowland areas,...
View ArticleBlood test can accurately diagnose heart failure in emergency patients
“We found that testing with the NT-proBNP assay was an extremely accurate way to identify or exclude heart failure in patients with shortness of breath,” says James Januzzi Jr., M.D., of the MGH...
View ArticleAntibiotics do not prevent heart attacks; New findings from the PROVE IT-TIMI...
Christopher P. Cannon, M.D., of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, noted that the fact that many patients do not exhibit identifiable risk...
View ArticleResearchers induce heart cells to proliferate
In the best-documented effort to date, researchers from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School have successfully induced adult heart-muscle cells...
View ArticleBroken hearts may mend after all
Although adult muscle cells become inflexible after differentiation, these cells temporarily loosen the structure to divide in fetal development. Mark T. Keating found that in some lower vertebrates,...
View ArticleHigher levels of systemic inflammatory markers associated with progression of...
Researchers led by Johanna M. Seddon, M.D., at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard School of Public Health, conducted a prospective longitudinal study to...
View ArticleRisk of sudden cardiac death is highest in the early period following a heart...
Even with modern medical treatment, patients who have experienced a heart attack remain at increased risk for sudden death after they are discharged from the hospital. In an effort to better understand...
View ArticleInternational multi-center study confirms value of blood test to diagnose...
Congestive heart failure, which occurs when an impaired heart muscle cannot pump blood efficiently, is a growing health problem and major cause of cardiac death. The diagnosis of heart failure may be...
View Article‘Gold standard’ of dietary recommendations found
In the mid-1990s, researchers at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Johns Hopkins University, and colleagues presented what is now considered a “gold standard” of dietary...
View ArticleDepression is bad for the heart
Depression is more likely to break your heart than smoking or eating fatty food. “Recurrence of cardiovascular events, including heart attacks, strokes, cardiac arrest, severe chest pain and other...
View ArticleExercise cuts risk of sudden cardiac death
Exercise improves your health, but can you kill yourself with too much snow shoveling, yard work, jogging, or playing tennis? “Despite all of the known benefits of exercise, there are also...
View ArticleFatty foods feed heart attacks, researchers say
Hold the french fries, doughnuts, and cookies, and save as many as 228,000 heart attacks and deaths from heart disease. That’s the message from a team of researchers at the Harvard School of Public...
View ArticleStudy says moderate drinking reduces men’s heart attack risk
Even as studies have consistently found an association between moderate alcohol consumption and reduced heart attack risk in men, an important question has persisted: What if the men who drank in...
View ArticleResearch reveals how stem cells build a heart
Master cells that give rise to the three main cell types in a human heart have been discovered by Harvard Stem Cell Institute scientists working independently at two Harvard-affiliated hospitals....
View ArticleStem cells make new heart valves
Harvard researchers have coaxed adult stem cells into forming artificial heart valves that could one day mean fewer surgeries for children suffering from heart defects. The scientists, at...
View ArticleEating whole-grain cereals may help men lower heart failure risk
Men who consume a higher amount of whole grain breakfast cereals may have a reduced risk of heart failure, according to a report by Harvard researchers published in the October 22 issue of Archives...
View ArticleGene responsible for statin-induced muscle pain identified
Statins, the popular class of drugs used to lower cholesterol, are among the most commonly prescribed medications in developed countries. But for some patients, accompanying side effects of muscle...
View ArticleStem cells open window on disease processes
A panel of Harvard Stem Cell Institute experts said recently that stem cell research’s biggest impact on patients’ health likely won’t come from therapies that inject stem cells or implant tissues made...
View ArticleVideo game technology may help surgeons operate on beating hearts
Surgery has been done inside some adults’ hearts while the heart is still beating, avoiding the need to open the chest, stop the heart and put patients on cardiopulmonary bypass. But to perform...
View ArticlePreviously unknown regulator of fat and cholesterol production discovered in...
Researchers have discovered an unknown regulator of fat and cholesterol production in the liver of mice, a significant finding that could eventually lead to new therapies for lowering unhealthy blood...
View ArticleNew source of heart stem cells discovered
Harvard Stem Cell Institute(HSCI) researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston are continuing to document the heart’s earliest origins. Now, they have pinpointed a new, previously unrecognized group of...
View ArticleAdvanced blood analysis may speed diagnosis of heart attacks
Someday doctors may be able to use a blood test to confirm within minutes, instead of hours, if a patient is having a heart attack, allowing more rapid treatment that could limit damage to heart...
View ArticleDrug trial shows dramatic reduction in risks posed by hidden heart disease
A Harvard-led study shows that the risk of heart attack and stroke among subjects with “silent heart disease” — and normal cholesterol levels — can be dramatically reduced by the use of an already...
View ArticleInternational study identifies gene variants associated with early heart attack
The largest study ever completed of genetic factors associated with heart attacks has identified nine genetic regions — three not previously described — that appear to increase the risk for early-onset...
View ArticleCommon gene variants increase risk of hypertension
A new study has identified the first common gene variants associated with an increased incidence of hypertension — a significant risk factor for heart attack, stroke, and kidney failure. The report,...
View ArticleResearchers find potential cause of heart risks for shift workers
Harvard researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and colleagues have identified the potential cause of the increased risk for cardiovascular and metabolic disease in shift workers. The...
View ArticleDefibrillators may have little benefit for older, sicker patients
Defibrillators are commonly recommended to patients with heart failure to prevent sudden cardiac death, but beyond having heart failure, there is a lack of criteria to identify the appropriate patients...
View ArticleWaist size predictor of heart failure in men and women
Adding to the growing evidence that a person’s waist size is an important indicator of heart health, a study led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has found that larger...
View ArticleEating fatty fish once a week reduces men’s risk of heart failure
Eating salmon or other fatty fish just once a week helped reduce men’s risk of heart failure, a recent study shows, adding to growing evidence that omega-3 fatty acids are of benefit to cardiac health....
View ArticleSmoking, high blood pressure and being overweight top three preventable...
Smoking, having high blood pressure, and being overweight are the leading preventable risk factors for premature mortality in the United States, according to a new study led by researchers at the...
View ArticleCommon virus could cause high blood pressure
A new study suggests for the first time that cytomegalovirus (CMV), a common viral infection affecting between 60 percent and 99 percent of adults worldwide, is a cause of high blood pressure, a...
View ArticleCommon ECG finding may indicate serious cardiac problems
A common electrocardiogram (ECG) finding that has largely been considered insignificant may actually signal an increased risk of atrial fibrillation (a chronic heart rhythm disturbance), the future...
View ArticleHuman cardiac master stem cells identified
Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have identified the earliest master human heart stem cell from human embryonic stem cells – ISL1+ progenitors – that give rise...
View ArticleLow-carb diets linked to atherosclerosis and impaired blood vessel growth
Even as low-carbohydrate/high-protein diets have proven successful at helping individuals rapidly lose weight, little is known about the diets’ long-term effects on vascular health. Now, a study led by...
View ArticleThree Harvard teams to receive $9 million each in federal funding for stem...
Three teams of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers are slated to receive $27 million over seven years in National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) grants for the development of...
View ArticleFrom stem cells to functioning strip of heart muscle
A team of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and collaborators at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) has taken a giant step...
View ArticleFrom stem cells to heart muscle
A team of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and collaborators at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) has taken a giant step...
View ArticleHarvard team grows heart muscle
Harvard researchers have created a strip of pulsing heart muscle from mouse embryonic stem cells, a step toward the eventual goal of growing replacement parts for hearts damaged by cardiovascular...
View ArticleCoronary artery disease more severe in HIV-infected men, study finds
Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have found that relatively young men with longstanding HIV infection and minimal cardiac risk factors had significantly more coronary...
View ArticleHeart test debate heats up
Two studies published yesterday are expected to reignite an emotionally charged debate about whether young athletes should be screened with a heart test to reduce the small risk of sudden death from an...
View ArticleHelping the heart help itself
Human trials of stem cell therapy for post-heart attack patients have raised as many questions as they have answered — because while the patients have tended to show some improvement in heart function,...
View ArticleProtecting the heart with optimism
Over the last few decades numerous studies have shown negative states, such as depression, anger, anxiety, and hostility, to be detrimental to cardiovascular health. Less is known about how positive...
View ArticleWomen pay high price for high job strain
New research from Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) finds that women with high job strain are more likely to experience a cardiovascular-related event compared with women with low job strain. These...
View ArticleBirth of new cardiac cells
Recent research has shown that there are new cells that develop in the heart, but how these cardiac cells are born and how frequently they are generated remains unclear. In a study from...
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Women with heart risk
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in women in the United States, deadlier than all forms of cancer combined. To make matters worse, in women the symptoms of cardiovascular disease may present...
View ArticleSoft robot helps the heart beat
Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital researchers have developed a customizable soft robot that fits around the heart and helps it beat, potentially opening new treatment options for people...
View ArticleExercise may help make heart younger, Harvard-affiliated study says
Doctors, health organizations, and the U.S. surgeon general all agree that exercise is good for the heart. But the reasons why are not well understood. In a new study performed in mice, researchers...
View ArticleResearchers identify brain’s role in broken heart syndrome
A new study uncovers potential mechanisms that may contribute to “broken heart syndrome,” or Takotsubo syndrome (TTS), a temporary heart condition that is brought on by stressful situations and...
View ArticleHow different types of physical activity affect cardiorespiratory fitness
We all know that exercise is good for us and that being fit can lower our risk of heart disease and possibly help us to live longer, but what amount and type of physical activity can change a person’s...
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