How repairing a broken volume switch could help people with heart failure

Source: British Heart Foundation

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Date of publication: February 2018

Publication type: Research

In a nutshell: Scientists at the University of Oxford are to investigate how fixing a ‘broken volume control’ could help people with heart failure.  Professor David Paterson has been awarded £618,000 by the British Heart Foundation to study how to repair a broken link to nerve cells that exacerbates damage caused by cardiovascular disease.

Professor David Paterson, head of the physiology, anatomy and genetics department, said: “When the heart muscle is injured by a heart attack or high blood pressure it can lead to heart failure, where it lacks the power to pump blood around the body efficiently.

“This is associated with an increase in the release of a chemical called noradrenaline from nerves, which makes the heart speed up when stressed.

“In healthy hearts, a special messenger in these nerves can tell them not to release too much noradrenaline, a bit like turning down a volume switch.

“In diseased hearts this messenger no longer works so the volume is constantly high. This puts the heart under extra strain as it is continually working harder than it needs too.

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Acknowledgement: British Heart Foundation

Progress in reducing heart attack deaths stalls

Source: British Heart Foundation

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Date of publication: February 2018

Publication type: News item

In a nutshell: Progress in reducing premature deaths (under 75) from coronary heart disease – the leading cause of heart attacks – is slowing to a near standstill, according to our latest figures.  Although there was a small fall in deaths from coronary heart disease in 2016, our research shows that the death rate declined by just 11% between 2012 and 2016, compared to 24% between 2007 and 2011.

In 2016 in the UK, 22,615 people died from coronary heart disease before they reached the age of 75 – the equivalent of 434 people every week. In total, more than 66,000 people of all ages lost their lives to the disease, which remains one of the UK’s single biggest killers.

The slow down in progress could soon spell the end of decades of continuous decline in deaths from heart disease unless research is accelerated to improve diagnosis and treatment.

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Acknowledgement: British Heart Foundation

Standard medical tests miss nearly two-thirds of heart attack diagnoses

Source: Science Daily

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Date of publication: February 2018

Publication type: Research

In a nutshell: ‘Unrecognized’ and ‘recognized’ heart attacks have the same long-term risk of death.  Unrecognised heart attacks (myocardial infarction; MI) refer to sub-clinical events that are missed in routine medical care but are picked up by electrocardiogram (ECG) or by cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging, which is more accurate.2

“Unrecognised MI has a poor short-term prognosis but until now the long-term outlook was unknown,” said lead author Dr Tushar Acharya, a cardiologist at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, US. “This study investigated long-term outcomes.”

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Acknowledgement: Science Daily

Seven ways … to lower your heart age

Source: The Guardian

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Date of publication: January 2018

Publication type: News item

In a nutshell: Article about how you can lower your risk of heart attack or stroke, at any age.

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Acknowledgement: The Guardian

Health Economic Evaluation of Primary Prevention Strategies Against Cardiovascular Disease

Source: PubMed

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Date of publication: January 2018

Publication type: Report

In a nutshell: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has for decades been the most common cause of death in Norway and most other Western countries. Several groups of drugs have shown in clinical trials to prevent CVD. In this report, we have evaluated the cost-effectiveness of these drugs.

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Acknowledgement: PubMed

Middle-aged can reverse heart risk with exercise, study suggests

Source: BBC Health News

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Date of publication: January 2018

Publication type: News item

In a nutshell: The study, published in the journal Circulation, analysed the hearts of 53 adults aged 45-64 who were healthy but had no history of exercising regularly.

Research has shown that sedentary behaviours – such as sitting or reclining for long periods of time – increase the risk of heart disease.

The study’s participants were divided into two groups, with one following an aerobic exercise routine that progressed in intensity over the two years and another doing yoga, balance training and weight training three times a week, also for two years.

The aerobic exercise group showed an 18% improvement in their maximum oxygen intake during exercise and a more than 25% improvement in “plasticity” in the left ventricular muscle of the heart – both markers of a healthier heart.

Length of publication: 1 webpage

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Acknowledgement: BBC Health News