Chronic Disease Interventions Work And Are Cost Effective

Chronic Disease Interventions Work And Are Cost Effective

 

Coronary heart disease incidence can be reduced by 7-8% if 2% of energy from trans fats is replaced with polyunsaturated fat, according to analyses from the Disease Control Priorities Project. This can be achieved at less than $0.50 per head, says the FDA, if such changes are facilitated through voluntary action by the food industry or by legislation, as was the case in New York where trans fats in restaurants were barred. "With this cost and the conservative estimate of an 8% reduction in coronary heart disease, the intervention is highly cost effective at $25 - 75 per DALY averted across the developing world. Assuming the greater reduction of 40% in coronary heart disease, the intervention is cost saving," say the writers.

Chronic Disease Interventions Work And Are Cost Effective

Public Health Programs Can Be Very Effective.

Nanotechnology Propels Advances In Regenerative Medicine Research

Nanotubes help adult stem cells morph into neurons in brain-damaged rats.

Nanostructures promote formation of blood vessels, bolster cardiovascular function after heart attack

Are the two major advances discussed at a conference recently. No hint of how the nanotubes did this was supplied.

Link

Tags: nonotube, CHD, stem cells

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Heart Disease and Colon Cancer

Chan's study included 706 adults living in Hong Kong who were in their early 60s, on average.

The group included 206 heart disease patients, 208 people without heart disease, and 207 people who weren't screened for heart disease.

Each participant had a  colonoscopy, in which doctors screen the colon and rectum for cancers and other abnormal growths.

None was taking aspirin or cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, which may help prevent colon cancer. None had undergone colorectal surgery or had a colonoscopy in the past decade.

The doctors found colorectal cancer in about 4% of the heart disease patients, less than 1% of those without heart disease, and 1.4% of those not screened for heart disease.

Suspicious polyps were also more common in the heart disease patients than in the other participants, the study shows.

Link

Tags: CHD, heart disease, colon cancer

Finding a link between heart disease and colon cancer makes sense but is not addressed in my area. 

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Link Between Cholesterol And Heart Disease Explained

Science Daily — Cholesterol contributes to atherosclerosis - a condition that greatly increases the risk of heart attack and stroke - by suppressing the activity of a key protein that protects the heart and blood vessels, researchers at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine have found

Until now, however, the process by which cholesterol contributes to atherosclerosis has not been well understood.

Using an animal model, Chun-Lin Chen, a senior graduate student on Dr. Huang's research team, found that cholesterol limits the activity of a key protective protein called transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta). TGF-beta serves many important functions in the body; in the heart, it protects the aorta and other vessels from damage caused by a variety of factors, including hypertension and high blood cholesterol levels.

Cholesterol, however, suppresses the responsiveness of cardiovascular cells to TGF-beta and its protective qualities - thus allowing atherosclerosis to develop. Similarly, the research found that statins, drugs that lower cholesterol levels, enhance the responsiveness of cardiovascular cells to the protective actions of TGF-beta, thus helping prevent the development of atherosclerosis and heart disease

Dr. Huang believes that this research could lead to the development of novel and effective therapies to treat or prevent atherosclerosis. For example, drugs that enhance or promote the protective activity of TGF-beta in cardiovascular cells should be effective in treating or preventing atherosclerosis, alone or in combination with other cholesterol-lowering agents.

Link

TGF-bata could be a key factor in the elimination  of heart disease.

Tags: Heart Disease, LDL, HDL

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Biomedical researchers pinpoint gene that produces good cholesterol

A team of global scientists have identified the gene that regulates "good cholesterol," which may provide insight into a possible cure for heart disease.
San Antonio's Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research and an international team of researchers unveiled a new discovery method for pinpointing genetic causes for diseases

Researchers used this very method for identifying the gene VNN1, which regulates the production of high density lipoproteins (HDL), also known as good cholesterol. In contrast, too much low density lipoproteins, or the bad cholesterol, has been linked to the build up of plaque in the circulatory system.

This study could indicate a way to proceed in the elimination of heart disease. Watch for more on the gene VNN1.

Tags: VNN1. HDL, LDL. Heart Disease

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Genetic Variations Responsible for Heart Disease Identified

The researchers used results from a similar German study to draw comparisons and identify the common genetic variations that led to an increase in the risk for heart disease. They found that changes in the DNA on the chromosomes were responsible for increased risk of developing coronary artery disease and heart attacks. The researchers identified not one or two but six different genetic variations, each linked to a higher risk.

The findings by Dr. Samani and team confirm those of a study earlier this year in which researchers found that mutations on another chromosome increased the risk of heart disease. “Carrying one copy of the genetic change increased the chance of developing heart disease by at least 20 percent, while two copies increased the risk by more than 40 percent” Dr. Samani said.

           

    Link

    Tags: CHD, Dr. Samani, DNA

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Stem cells may mend a broken heart

The study, which was done on mice, shows that stem cells play a limited, but significant role in repairing damaged hearts. However, it remains unclear whether it is heart cells that are doing the repair, or cells from elsewhere in the body.

Richard Lee of the Harvard Medical School in Boston and colleagues genetically engineered mice so their heart muscle cells could be stained with a fluorescent protein.

Around 80 per cent of the heart muscle cells in young mice picked up the stain. As the mice aged, this level remained the same, which the researchers say demonstrates that heart muscle cells are not normally replaced in life.

However, when they induced heart attacks in the mice, the number of stained cells dropped to 70 per cent, suggesting that new muscle cells are formed in response to injury.

Link

This article implies that hearts have a limited ability to regenerate themselves.  More must be found out.

Tags: CHD, Stem Cells, Heart Regeneration, Richard Lee

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Benefits of stem-cell engraftment may not last

The good news is that real, beating cardiomyocytes can be grown from undifferentiated stem cells, and large quantities of these cells with distinctly human characteristics can be obtained from human embryonic stem cells, as Mummery's talk proved. These differentiated cells will permit screens for drugs that bolster the numbers of cardiomyocytes produced and that help cardiomyocytes engraft and survive. Thus, although this progress may not signal the arrival of effective therapies, it may mark the true beginning of their development.

Link

The good news is also that the real work of heart repair is beginning.  The tough answers are beginning to come out.  Now, we can suspect that varying results might be caused by mis-labeling cells. Now, we know that the heart is a difficult but not impossible place to use stem cells, and that stem cells can form heart cells.

Tags: Heart, Cardiomyocytes, Mummery, ISSCR.

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Benefits of stem-cell engraftment may not last

The Article covers some of the road blocks, there seem to be many, to heart repair using stem cells.

Not only do hearts recover poorly after injury, the prevalence of and morbidity from heart damage is high. Not surprisingly, cardiac regeneration is seen as among the most important applications of stem cell research. But although cell replacement therapy, or the successful engraftment of stem cells, works for bone marrow transplantation, this kind of cell therapy will be much more difficult in solid organs, at least according to results, presented at the June 2007 meeting of the ISSCR. Indeed, not only does heart tissue fail to promote integration of transplanted cardiomyocytes, it may even provide a hostile environment.

Link

Tags: CHD, ESC, Heart Damage

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First study transplanting angina patients' purified stem cells shows safety and symptom relief

The first U.S. study to transplant a potent form of purified adult stem cells into the heart muscle of patients with severe angina provided evidence that the procedure is safe and produced a reduction in angina pain as well as improved functioning in patients' daily lives, reports the lead researcher at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine.

Within three to six weeks after the severe angina patients were injected with their own stem cells, many who used to experience pain just from walking to the refrigerator, now only had pain when they climbed two flights of stairs.

This is the first human trial in which patients' own purified stem cells, called CD-34 cells, were injected into their hearts in an effort to spur regrowth of small blood vessels that constitute the microcirculation of the heart muscle. Researchers believe the loss of these blood vessels contributes to the pain of chronic, severe angina.

Link

Tags: angina, CHD, heart failure, Feinberg school of medicine, CD-34 Cells

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Study Will Test Stem Cells Against Heart Attack

In a first-of-a-kind study, patients who've recently had a major heart attack and are undergoing coronary bypass surgery will be injected with selected stem cells harvested from their own bone marrow.

The study of 60 patients by researchers at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom will examine whether those stem cells can repair heart muscle cells damaged by heart attack. Specifically, the researchers want to determine if the stem cells can prevent late scar formation and the impaired heart contraction that can result from that scarring.

Article

Tags: Stem Cells, CHD, heart attack, bone marrow, University of Bristol, heart study

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'Off-The-Shelf' Vascular Grafts Developed

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine investigators have engineered artificial blood vessels from muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs) and a biodegradable polymer that exhibit extensive remodeling and remain free of blockages when grafted into rats. The results of their study, which was presented at the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) North America Chapter meeting at the Westin Harbor Castle conference center in Toronto, has potentially significant implications for the treatment of heart and kidney diseases, where there is a critical need for new sources of blood vessels for vascular grafts.

The saphenous vein taken from a patient's leg continues to be the most commonly used graft for coronary artery bypass grafting even though a significant percentage of vein grafts eventually fail. Arterial grafts are the preferred conduits because they are less prone to becoming obstructed. However, they are in very limited supply, as many patients require multiple grafts. Thus, there is an ongoing search for the ideal small-caliber arterial substitute for revascularization procedures.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=74498

Tags: stem Cells, Artifical Blood Vessels, MDSC, Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society, TERMIS, Arterial grafts, saphenous vein

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The Berlin Heart Pump

The FDA made an exception and permitted the use of the Berlin Heart pump, which is approved for use throughout Europe but not the United States, to keep 5-year-old Joseph Greenwood alive as he awaited a heart transplant.

This is a heart wrenching story that introduced me to the Berlin Heart pump.  It seems to be able to keep patients alive for up to several months while waiting for a transplant.  Sounds like a wonderful maching.

Tags: Berlin heart Pump, Heart Failure, CPR

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Berlin Pump sustains patient 234 days

5-year-old Jason Zhao from Vallejo, Calif., received the best Valentine's gift he could ask for—a healthy new heart. But Jason, whose own heart failed last June, wouldn't have lived long enough to accept the transplant without the assistance of a mechanical external pump known as the Berlin Heart. The device kept Jason alive for 234 days at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, longer than any other child in North America. Only three other children in the world have survived longer than that on the pump.

Tags: Berlin Pump

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Viral Diseas Destroys Heart of Mexican Boy-citizens of Texas React.

Residents of the Texas city raised about $500,000 for the boy, who suffers a viral infection that is eating away at his heart tissue. "In many children, it just gives you a common cold, but in certain settings, it will cause an inflammation of the heart ," said Dr. Elizabeth Frazier, head of the cardiac transplantation program at Arkansas Children's Hospital. "It permanently damages the heart muscle; it actually kills the heart muscle."

This international effort to provide care for one boy shows an aspect of the transformation of medicine over the last several decades. It also speaks about the role of human charity in medical care.

Tags: Viral heart disease, heart transplant

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PharmaLive: Study Presented at the ACC Shows Inflammatory Enzyme Lp-PLA2 Predicts Heart Disease Risk in Metabolic Syndrome Patients

PharmaLive: Study Presented at the ACC Shows Inflammatory Enzyme Lp-PLA2 Predicts Heart Disease Risk in Metabolic Syndrome Patients: "Study Presented at the ACC Shows Inflammatory Enzyme Lp-PLA2 Predicts Heart Disease Risk in Metabolic Syndrome Patients


NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 26, 2007 - Study results show that elevated lipoprotein-associated phospholipase A2 (Lp-PLA2), a cardiovascular-specific inflammatory enzyme associated with unstable plaque that can lead to heart attack and stroke, is especially predictive of heart disease risk in patients with the metabolic syndrome--a serious medical condition that affects nearly 50 million Americans. The results, which were presented yesterday at the American College of Cardiology's annual scientific session, confirm previous findings demonstrating the association between elevated Lp-PLA2 and coronary heart disease. "

United Press International - Health Business - Prostate therapy may up heart disease

United Press International - Health Business - Prostate therapy may up heart disease: "Androgen deprivation therapy, commonly used to treat prostate cancer, may increase mortality from heart disease in men over 65, say Boston researchers."

Newswise | Fruit Flies May Pave Way to New Treatments for Age-related Heart Disease

Newswise Fruit Flies May Pave Way to New Treatments for Age-related Heart Disease: "The tiny Drosophila fruit fly may pave the way to new methods for studying and finding treatments for heart disease, the leading cause of death in industrialized countries, according to a collaborative study by the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, UC San Diego (UCSD) and the University of Michigan.
The study reports that mutations in a molecular channel found in heart muscle cell membranes caused arrhythmias similar to those that are found in humans, suggesting that understanding how this channel’s activity is controlled in the cell could lead to new heart disease treatments. "

The involved methods described in this report are amazing. We can watch a fly's heart functionning. From that, we can see how genetic changes in the human heart can affect heat disease.

icWales - Pills before ills in heart disease fight

icWales - Pills before ills in heart disease fight: "The Welsh Assembly Government is considering advising men and women to take cholesterol-lowering statins in the latest bid to combat Britain's biggest killer, which claims 12,000 lives in Wales every year."

This continues the trend in the British Isles of wide spread statin usage to prevent CHD. It will be interesting to monitor the results in a few years.

Health Care Marketplace | Kaiser Permanente Launches Long-Term Project To Collect Genetic Data on Members - Kaisernetwork.org

Health Care Marketplace Kaiser Permanente Launches Long-Term Project To Collect Genetic Data on Members - Kaisernetwork.org:

"the Research Program on Genes, Environment and Health -- include cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, asthma, diabetes and reproductive problems (Peyton Dahlberg, Sacramento Bee, 2/15). Similar studies are 'planned or are under way in Great Britain, Iceland, Japan and Estonia, but the Kaiser membership study appears to stand out both for its size and ethnic diversity in the United States,' the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Hall, San Francisco Chronicle, 2/15)."

This is a massive study dealing with heart disease.

Heart disease rate in the US on the rise

Heart Disease on the Rise

Heart disease rate in the US on the rise: "Heart disease has been the leading cause of death in the United States for the past 80 years ( 1) and is a major cause of disability. Heart disease also results in substantial health-care expenditures; for example, coronary heart disease is projected to cost an estimated $151.6 billion in direct and indirect costs in 2007 ( 2). Although some self-reported national data are available ( 3), state-specific prevalence data for heart disease have not been reported previously. In addition, although racial/ethnic, geographic, and sex differences in death rates for heart disease have been documented ( 4,5), less information has been available regarding the prevalence of persons living with heart disease. To estimate the prevalence of myocardial infarction (MI) and angina/coronary heart disease (CHD) in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia (DC), Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), CDC analyzed self-reported data from the 2005 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS).* This report summarizes the results of that analysis and provides the first state-based prevalence estimates of these heart diseases."

Researchers discover 'sticky' proteins fuse adult stem cells to cardiac muscle, repairing hearts

Researchers discover 'sticky' proteins fuse adult stem cells to cardiac muscle, repairing hearts
Cardiologists are increasingly using adult stem cells in clinical trials to repair hearts following heart attacks, but no one has understood how the therapy actually works. Now, in animal experiments, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have deconstructed the process, describing how the stem cells fuse with heart muscle cells to create new cells that repopulate the ailing organ. "

This report seems to answer whether stem cells repair the vascular structure or regenerate heart muscle. GOOD NEWS, they do both.

cbs11tv.com - New Tool May Better Predict Women's Heart Disease

Reynolds Risk Score

cbs11tv.com - New Tool May Better Predict Women's Heart Disease: "The new risk model, called Reynolds Risk Score, measures a women's level of risk for a heart attack or stroke in 10 years. The seven questions include age, whether you smoke, blood pressure and cholesterol. The new test also has information about C-reactive protein and family history."

Heart disease symptoms in women are much harder to detect but the results of heart disease are at least as fatal to women as a group. Everyone should pay attention to this new test.

ActivBiotics Announces Initiation of Phase II Study in Carotid Atherosclerosis

ActivBiotics Announces Initiation of Phase II Study in Carotid Atherosclerosis: "ActivBiotics, Inc. announced
today that patient enrollment has begun in a Phase II study examining the
effect of rifalazil, a potent anti-chlamydial antibiotic, on
atherosclerotic changes in the carotid artery. The RESTORE-IT trial
(Randomized Evaluation of Short-Term Rifalazil Treatment on Carotid
Atherosclerosis and Intima Media Thickness)"

If this trial succeeds, it would point to a drug that would reduce plaque build up and help isolate one source of that event.

Pregnancy-related heart failure explained | Huliq: Breaking News

Pregnancy-related heart failure explained Huliq: Breaking News: "The researchers discovered that mice whose hearts lack a gene that enlists the activities of critical antioxidants develop PPCM. Under those stressful conditions, the mice develop increased levels of another enzyme that cleaves the nursing hormone prolactin, forming an aberrant protein that damages heart muscle. As evidence that the findings in animals hold for humans, the researchers found a similar imbalance of proteins in the cardiac tissue of PPCM patients."

One in 1300 to 4000 deliveries are affected by this genetic abnormality. I suppose this makes genetic screening all the more valuable when it is cheap enough to be done.

MiamiHerald.com | 02/07/2007 | Surgery drug , Trasylol, worries doctors

MiamiHerald.com 02/07/2007 Surgery drug worries doctors: "Researchers compared patients who received aprotinin to patients who got other drugs or no anti-bleeding drugs. Over five years, 20.8 percent of the aprotinin patients died, versus 12.7 percent of the patients who received no anti-bleeding drug. When researchers adjusted for other factors, they found that patients who got Trasylol ran a 48 percent higher risk of dying in the five years afterward."

Trasylol is the trade name of aprotinin. Bayer has protested the study methods but more questions remain.

Health Blog Posts Powered by BlogBurst | Health News | Reuters.com

Health Blog Posts Powered by BlogBurst Health News Reuters.com: "Researchers studying the causes of heart disease made a breakthrough when a recent study identified a gene variant as a cause for heart disease in women. Researchers from Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, the University of Iowa and Roche Molecular Systems held a variant of the gene Leukotriene C4 Synthase (LTC4S) responsible on the basis of a study that began in 1971 and involved 11,377 participants. Various risk factors like weight, cholesterol levels and blood pressure were recorded and analyzed. They found that when those with a variant of gene LTC4S suffer an injury in their blood vessel, there is excessive inflammation, which hampers the repair of the blood vessel. This could lead to heart disease. The researchers are optimistic about their findings making personalized treatments possible."

Personalized medicine is on the way. This is one of the steps. Of course, practical treatment may be more than a generation away.

Drug to slow bleeding leads to more deaths: study | Health | Reuters.com

Drug to slow bleeding leads to more deaths: study Health Reuters.com: "Based on five years of data on 3,876 heart bypass patients from around the world, the death rate among the 1,072 patients given Bayer AG's drug aprotinin was nearly 21 percent, two-thirds higher than the mortality rate among surgery patients not given anti-bleeding drugs."

This drug has the ability to start clots. Its use seems to run against common sense in a situation always trying to eliminate them.

National Wear Red Day

Nutrition for a healthy heart goes a long way: www.goredforwomen.org

February came and went and I didn't know that it was National Wear Red Day. In support of American Heart Month, millions of Americans wore red to show their commitment to the fight against heart disease in women. http://www.goredforwomen.org has more information about it.

A Substitute for Transfats?

A Substitute for Transfats?: "the food industry is engaging in a major effort to find a new form of fat that doesn't spoil and that is not a liquid. The latest candidate is interesterified fats. These fats are produced by taking a type of saturated fatty acid that is considered relatively safe (stearic acid, present in chocolate), and combining it with vegetable oils (which contain unsaturated fat). The combination produces a type of fat that has the stability and solidity of saturated fats, but (it is hoped) the health profile of unsaturated fats. Indeed, interesterified fats are showing up in foods already. The Food and Drug Administration recently ruled that food companies can label products containing these new fats as 'high stearate' or 'stearic rich' fats, or as 'interesterified fats,' thus avoiding the politically negative buzz word, 'hydrogenated,' which is associated with transfats. "

The new word is interesterified . That will be showing up on labels. Now you can know what it means

I love blogger so I'm moving

I have been covering heart matters on myspace. After doing other topics on blogger, I just don't want to put up with that anymore. So here goes, CHD will be here and myspace will become a social journal. Welcome to this blog.