Scholars World Heart Congress

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), nearly half of all adults in the United States have cardiovascular disease. It caused more deaths in 2016 than previous years, despite rates of cardiovascular deaths having declined worldwide. The amended hypertension guidelines explain the high prevalence of cardiovascular disease in the U.S., say the AHA. Heart disease is the leading cause of mortality in the United States, followed closely by cancer and chronic respiratory diseases. In fact, heart disease causes almost 1 in 4 deaths in the U.S. Staying abreast of the latest statistics on the prevalence of this condition is key for prevention. Physicians, governmental organizations, and patients alike can benefit from information on heart disease death rates and risk factors that stave off cardiovascular conditions. In this context, the American Heart Association (AHA) have just published their 2019 updated Heart and Stroke stat...

A drug commonly used to treat high blood pressure and angina (chest pain) is associated with an increased risk of out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest, according to results from the European Sudden Cardiac Arrest network (ESCAPE-NET) presented today at EHRA 2019.1 Sudden cardiac arrest causes around half of cardiac deaths in Europe and one in five natural deaths. The heart stops pumping after a cardiac arrhythmia (ventricular fibrillation/tachycardia); this is lethal in minutes if untreated. ESCAPE-NET was set up to find the causes of these arrhythmias, so they can be prevented. Dr Hanno Tan, ESCAPE-NET project leader and cardiologist, Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, urged caution when interpreting these results. He said: "The findings need to be replicated in other studies before action should be taken by doctors or patients." The study examined if nifedipine and amlodipine, dihydropyridines widely used for high blood pressure and angina, are l...

Dive Brief: Use of artificial intelligence (AI) with an electrocardiogram (EKG) can create an inexpensive, noninvasive test for asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction, a precursor to heart failure, a study by the Mayo Clinic has found. An AI/EKG test offers an alternative to expensive imaging tests such as echocardiograms and CT and MRI scans as well as tests that measure natriuretic peptide levels in the blood (BNP) that have sometimes yielded disappointing results, the  Mayo researchers said . The accuracy of the AI/EKG test compared favorably with other common screening tests such as prostate-specific antigen for prostate cancer, mammography for breast cancer and cervical cytology for cervical cancer, the study found. The results were published in Nature Medicine. Dive Insight: Asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction, which affects seven million Americans, is characterized by weak pumping in which the heart can’t push enough blood into circulation. It increase...

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have demonstrated that the recently developed antidiabetic drug empagliflozin can treat and reverse the progression of heart failure in non-diabetic animal models. Their study also shows that this drug can make the heart produce more energy and function more efficiently. The results were published in the April 23 issue of the  Journal of American College of Cardiology . "This drug could be a promising treatment for heart failure in both non-diabetic and diabetic patients," said lead author Juan Badimon, MD, Professor of Cardiology and Director of the Atherothrombosis Research Unit at the Cardiovascular Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "Our research can lead to a potential application in humans, save lives, and improve quality of life." Empagliflozin was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2014. It limits renal sugar resorption and is the first drug in the histo...

Novo Biosciences Inc., has achieved several major milestones in its mission of bringing its breakthrough drug candidate, trodusquemine (aka MSI-1436), to market as a potential regenerative medicine treatment for heart disease and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Trodusquemine is a repurposed drug candidate that has already been shown to be well tolerated by patients. "Trodusquemine holds significant potential for the treatment of some of our most devastating diseases," said Kevin Strange, Ph.D., Novo's CEO. "Our recent progress on the path toward clinical trials gives hope to the millions of patients who face limited treatment options." Novo has demonstrated that trodusquemine stimulates the regeneration of heart muscle tissue in mice after an artificially induced heart attack. Trodusquemine is the only small molecule known to stimulate regeneration of the adult mammalian heart. Heart disease is the nation's leading cause of death, but treatment opt...

The new technology is focused on improving detection and diagnosis of congenital heart disease in infants and children. A new study by biomedical engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas could significantly improve methods for detecting and diagnosing congenital heart disease in infants and small children. The researchers, collaborating with cardiologists at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock, tested a new ultrasound technology called vector flow imaging for the first time on pediatric patients to create detailed images of the internal structure and blood flow of the babies' hearts. The images can be still or moving, and can be taken from any angle. "Vector flow imaging technology is not yet possible in adults, but we have demonstrated that it is feasible in pediatric patients," said Morten Jensen, associate professor of biomedical engineering at the U of A. "Our group demonstrated that this commercially available technology c...

Heart failure occurs when the heart loses its ability to pump blood effectively. Current treatments can slow or stop the disease getting worse, but they can't regress it. Now, scientists have designed a molecule that could not only curb heart failure but also improve the heart's blood pumping ability. The researchers in Brazil and the United States who developed and tested the experimental drug have named it "SAMβA," which is short for "selective antagonist of mitofusin 1-β2PKC association." When the researchers gave it to rats with heart failure, the molecule not only stopped the disease from progressing but also reduced its severity by improving the ability of heart muscle to contract. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324722.php # Meet Inspiring Speakers and Experts at #Heart Congress 2019  https://scholarsconferences.com/heartcongress/ General Enquiry: heartcongress@scholarsmeetings.org

The real costs of a heart attack or stroke doubles when lost wages and other indirect costs are added to the healthcare tab, results of a new study show. Findings of World Health Day, published in the  European Journal of Preventive Cardiology , show that those who return to work are 25% less productive in their first year back. While there has been progress in reducing death rates from cardiovascular events, heart disease still claimed 18 million lives worldwide in 2015, and morbidity with cardiovascular disease (CVD) is expected to increase because of an aging population, as well as rising obesity and rates of diabetes. Last month, the  American College of Cardiology  and the American Heart Association updated their primary prevention guidelines to emphasize a focus on social determinants of health, and for the first time included 2 new classes of type 2 diabetes (T2D) therapies in the guidelines: sodium glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors and glucagon-like peptide-1 ...