Weight gain and high blood pressure in college football players leads to adverse changes in cardiac structure and function, indicating monitoring and early intervention is needed for this young and otherwise healthy athletic population, according to a new study.
Read moreIt is already known that zebrafish can flexibly regenerate their hearts after injury. An international research group now shows that certain heart muscle cells play a central role in this process. The insights gained could be used to initiate a similar repair process in the human heart.
Read moreGenerally, exercise is considered good for you. However, physicians and medical doctors previously prescribed bedrest to people with heart failure, fearing exercise could potentially lead to additional health problems.
Read moreFaulty signalling pathway causes the heart to develop unnaturally while in the embryo stage, according to Duke-NUS Medical School researchers.
Read moreWhen young athletes experiences sudden cardiac death as they run down the playing field, it's usually due to arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM), an inherited heart disease. Now, researchers have shed new light on the role of the immune system in the progression of ACM and, in the process, discovered a new drug that might help prevent ACM disease symptoms and progression to heart failure in some patients.
Read moreDrinking small amounts of alcohol frequently is linked with a higher likelihood of atrial fibrillation than binge drinking, according to new research.
Read moreWomen receive poorer heart attack treatment than men, even when rates of diagnosis are the same, according to new research.
Read moreA heart attack is caused by a clot that blocks the artery blood flow. Under these conditions, the affected tissues undergo a rapid necrosis. But why? Scientists discovered that the synthesis of a lipid provokes the necrosis. This lipid accumulates in the absence of oxygen and blocks cellular functions. By inhibiting its synthesis in a mouse suffering a heart attack, the biologists were able to reduce the tissue damage by 30%.
Read moreBlood pressure medication can prevent fluid retention and muscle wasting in heart failure.
Read moreAdministered within hours of an attack, the potential drug would prevent scarring that can lead to heart failure. For the study, the researcher used a drug that targets a key component of the cellular clock mechanism. The medication disrupts expression of genes that trigger adverse immune responses after a heart attack. When mice were given the drug after a heart attack, they were found to have less inflammation and improved cardiac repair.
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