Thursday, April 28, 2011

Morning heart attacks are deadlier

And if this can be avoided at all, if not, then it should be avoided in the morning. Can you schedule it's happening at all?
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Posted: 27 April 2011

Surgeons perform a heart surgery.
PARIS: Heart attacks that occur in the morning are likely to be more serious than attacks at other times of the day, a specialist journal reported on Wednesday.

Spanish researchers looked at data from 811 patients who had been admitted to a Madrid clinic with a myocardial infarction between 2003 and 2009.

They used levels of an enzyme in the blood to measure the extent of dead tissue, known as an infarct, which is caused by blocked blood supply to heart muscle.

Those who had had a heart attack between 6:00 am and noon, during the transition from darkness to light, had a 21-percent larger infarct compared with patients whose attack occurred between 6:00 pm and midnight.

The study, published in the British journal Heart, builds on previous evidence that circadian rhythm - the famous "body clock" - influences the heart in many ways such as blood pressure, heart rate, cardiac output and the function of cells that line cardiac blood vessels.

Of the 811 patients, 269 had their heart attacks in the period from 6:00 am to noon. More than three-quarters of the patients admitted to the clinic were men. Their average age was 62.

The findings should be useful in assessing the effectiveness of drugs against heart disease, the researchers said.

- AFP/de



Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Heart attacks are more serious in the morning, says study

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Tai chi can be boost for heart patients

It was yoga at first, now tai chi...
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Posted: 26 April 2011

A student (C) learns the moves of Tai Chi from his master (R)
WASHINGTON: People with chronic heart failure may be able to boost their quality of life by doing tai chi, the ancient Chinese exercise regimen, a US study suggested on Monday.

Two group sessions of one hour each per week were enough to show significant improvements in mood and confidence, said the Boston-based study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, a journal of the American Medical Association.

The study compared 50 US heart patients who enrolled in tai chi classes -- sessions led by an instructor who guided the class in a series of fluid motions -- to 50 who took classroom study in heart education.

Physical responses were similar in both groups, but those who did tai chi showed "significant" improvements according to their answers in a questionnaire to assess their emotional state.

The tai chi group also reported better "exercise self-efficacy (confidence to perform certain exercise-related activities), with increased daily activity, and related feelings of well-being compared with the education group," said the study.

While experts admit they do not fully understand the science behind the findings, the study offers a positive option for complementing standard medical care of people with chronic heart failure, a debilitating and progressive disease that limits a person's ability to breathe and move.

"Tai chi appears to be a safe alternative to low-to-moderate intensity conventional exercise training," said lead author Gloria Yeh of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

"Tai chi is safe and has a good rate of adherence and may provide value in improving daily exercise, quality of life, self-efficacy and mood in frail, deconditioned patients with systolic heart failure," said Yeh.

Yeh is also an assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Research and Education in Complimentary and Integrative Medical Therapies at Harvard Medical School.

Previous studies have suggested tai chi, which involves slow, circular movements and balance-shifting exercises, may be helpful to people who suffer from high blood pressure, fibromyalgia and stress.

-AFP/ck



Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Tai chi can be boost for heart patients

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Aspirin isn't just a pain-killer, eh

Some side effects that is undesired, I suppose...
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Posted: 26 April 2011

WASHINGTON: Aspirin and other anti-inflammatory drugs taken for pain relief may reduce the effectiveness of anti-depressants such as Prozac, a US study suggested on Monday.

As many as one in five people are affected by major depressive disorders but about one-third of them are resistant to anti-depressant drugs, said the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers at Rockefeller University in New York examined the most widely used type of anti-depressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, when taken in combination with ibuprofen, aspirin and naproxen.

Some well-known drugs included in the family of SSRIs include Prozac, Paxil, Lexapro and Zoloft.

In experiments on mice, researchers tracked brain levels of cell-signalling protein molecules called cytokines, which are boosted by SSRIs, and found they were counteracted by anti-inflammatory drugs.

Then, they analyzed data collected from the largest US study on anti-depressant use in humans, the STAR*D study of 4,000 adults taken over seven years and published in 2006.

The Rockefeller researchers found that 54 percent of patients not using pain relievers responded to anti-depressant therapy, but only 40 percent did among those using anti-inflammatory agents.

"The mechanism underlying these effects is not yet clear. Nevertheless, our results may have profound implications for patients, given the very high treatment resistance rates for depressed individuals taking SSRIs," said co-author Jennifer Warner-Schmidt.

The findings may have particular relevance to patients who are trying to manage both chronic pain and depression.

"Many elderly individuals suffering from depression also have arthritic or related diseases and as a consequence are taking both anti-depressant and anti-inflammatory medications," said co-author Paul Greengard.

"Our results suggest that physicians should carefully balance the advantages and disadvantages of continuing anti-inflammatory therapy in patients being treated with anti-depressant medications."

Previous studies have suggested that anti-inflammatories may actually boost the potency of two other but less common types of anti-depressants, known as tricyclic or noradrenergic anti-depressants.

- AFP/de



Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Aspirin reduces effect of anti-depressants: study

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More seniors sexually active, leading to higher STD cases

1872 cartoon by Thomas Nast, lampooning the fr...Image via WikipediaThere is an interesting article that you may want to read. Especially if you are among the population being discussed in it.

Read the excerpt below:



Across the nation, and especially in the Sunshine State, the free-love generation is continuing to enjoy an active — if not always healthy — sex life.

At a stage in life when many would expect sexually transmitted diseases to be waning, seniors are noticeably ahead of the national curve.




Want to follow that article, here it is:
Seniors' sex lives are up — and so are STD cases
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Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Cancer Survivors More Likely to Suffer from Neurocognitive Health Issues

Центральная нервная система-Central nervous systemImage via WikipediaSubmitted by Pallavi Sharma on Sat, 04/16/2011

It’s a wakeup call for cancer survivors across the world. As per a recent study by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital investigators, people who survived cancer in their childhood are more likely to suffer from neurocognitive- related diseases.

Most of the people who either suffering fromsleeping disorder or metal stress are subjected to serious health concerns, Kevin Krull, Ph. D., the study’s corresponding author and an associate member of the St. Jude Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control, said. St. Jude investigators led the study and asserted that people who survived cancer at young age are at a higher risk of neurocognitive problems.

For the study, the team roped in 1,426 survivors and 384 healthy siblings treated in the CCSS for brain and central nervous system tumors, leukemia and lymphoma between 1970 and 1986 and further, made them pass through an array of neurocognitive tests.

The study unveiled that though around 80% people survive cancer due to advancedcancer treatments available, the long-term consequences of the cancer therapymake them more susceptible to a wide range of health issues related to neurocognitive problems.

Meanwhile, the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is on the spree of raising funds through its Fifth Annual St. Jude Trike-A-Thon on April 9, 2011, in the parking lot at the Gold Canyon United Methodist Church.



Taken from Topnews.net.nz; source article is below:
Cancer Survivors More Likely to Suffer from Neurocognitive Health Issues, Says Study


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Odd work schedules and your health

The Potomac Conslidated TRACON.Image via WikipediaBy RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer  Sat Apr 16, 2:24 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Reports of sleeping air traffic controllers highlight a long-known and often ignored hazard: Workers on night shifts can have trouble concentrating and even staying awake.

"Government officials haven't recognized that people routinely fall asleep at night when they're doing shift work," said Dr. Charles Czeisler, chief of sleep medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Czeisler said studies show that 30 percent to 50 percent of night-shift workers report falling asleep at least once a week while on the job.
So the notion that this has happened only a few times among the thousands of controllers "is preposterous," he said in a telephone interview.

In a sign of growing awareness of the problem, the Federal Aviation Administration said Saturday it was changing air traffic controllers' work schedules most likely to cause fatigue. The announcement comes after the agency disclosed another incident in which a controller fell asleep while on duty early Saturday morning at a busy Miami regional facility. According to a preliminary review, there was no impact to flight operations, the FAA said.

Czeisler said the potential danger isn't limited to air traffic controllers, but can apply to truck and bus drivers, airline pilots and those in the maritime industry. Who else? Factory workers, police, firefighters, emergency workers, nurses and doctors, cooks, hotel employees, people in the media and others on night or changing shifts.

"We live in a very sleep-deprived society where many people are burning the candle at both ends," Czeisler said. He said that a half-century ago, just 2 percent of people slept six hours or less per night; today it's 28 percent.

Dr. William Fishbein, a neuroscientist at the City University of New York, said that when people work odd shifts "it mucks up their biological rhythms."

Hormones are synchronized with the wake-sleep cycle. When people change shifts, the brain never knows when it's supposed to be asleep, so this affects how people function.

People who change shifts every few days are going to have all kinds of problems related to memory and learning, Fishbein said. This kind of schedule especially affects what he called relational memories, which involve the ability to understand how one thing is related to another.
In addition to drowsiness and inability to concentrate, people working night shifts are more subject to chronic intestinal and heart diseases and have been shown to have a higher incidence of some forms of cancer. The World Health Organization has classified shift work as a probable carcinogen.

"We have 500 cable channels, we take work home with us on our Blackberrys and computers, both work and entertainment options are available 24 hours a day seven days a week and there is much more and brighter light exposure in our homes in evenings, which affects hormones involved in sleep, Czeisler said.

"And we are still trying to get up with the chickens because our work hours are starting earlier and earlier," he said.

Today, controllers are at the center of the firestorm, with recent reports that several planes couldn't contact airport towers for assistance in landing. Members of Congress are responding to a worried public, controllers have been suspended and the head of the government's air traffic control system has resigned.

President Barack Obama told ABC News that controllers must stay alert and do their jobs.

One old solution back in the news is allowing night workers to nap.

"There should be sanctioned on-shift napping. That's the way to handle night shift work," said Gregory Belenky, a sleep expert at Washington State University in Spokane.

A NASA study suggested that pilots on long-distance flights would perform much better if given a chance to take a scheduled nap, as long the rest was planned and the both pilots didn't sleep at the same time.

"But even though that's been known for decades, it's never been allowed because we prefer to pretend that these things are not happening," instead of managing the problem, Czeisler said. "We have a bury-our-head-in-the-sand attitude."

Controllers are often scheduled for a week of midnight shifts followed by a week of morning shifts and then a week on swing shifts. This pattern, sleep scientists say, interrupts the body's natural sleep cycles.

Many of the Federal Aviation Administration's 15,700 controllers work schedules that allow no realistic opportunity for rest. Their record for errors on the job has grown sharply over the past several years.

FAA rules prohibit sleeping on the job, even during breaks. Employees who violate them can be fired. But controllers told The Associated Press that napping at night where one controller works two jobs while the other sleeps, and then they swap, is an open secret within the agency.

Czeisler also is urging screening of truck drivers for sleep apnea, a breathing problem they can be prone to because many are obese. He estimates that as many as 250,000 people in the U.S. doze off while driving every day, mostly in the daytime.

Studies have shown that a sleep-deprived driver is as impaired as someone with enough alcohol in his blood to be considered a drunken driver.

Even a drunk has some reflexes. "If you fall asleep, your performance is much worse," he said.
___
Associated Press writer Joan Lowy contributed to this report.


Taken from News.yahoo.com; source article is below:
Odd work schedules pose risk to health

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Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Ovarian cancer starts elsewhere, says study

Posted: 19 April 2011

WASHINGTON: US researchers have recreated the process by which ovarian cancer forms in the lab, providing solid evidence that the tumours start in the fallopian tubes, not the ovaries, a study said on Monday.

The finding could provide clues on how to attack ovarian cancer, which often causes no early symptoms and by the time it is found has spread so much that the tumours are impossible to stop.

Ovarian cancer is the fifth deadliest cancer among women, affecting 200,000 women worldwide annually and killing 115,000 women on average each year.

Several studies have theorised that the cancer may originate elsewhere, but the latest research by scientists at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston shows how the cancer takes root first in fallopian tissue.

The fallopian tubes are the pathways by which a woman's egg travels from the ovary to the uterus as part of her reproductive cycle.

Ronny Drapkin, senior author of the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said previous examinations of fallopian tissue taken from women genetically predisposed to ovarian cancer have shown "patches of cells that were predecessors of serious cancers."

So they decided to try and replicate the process of cancer formation in the lab.

Researchers took fallopian cells and altered their genetic programming so they would divide much like cancer cells.

"Like true tumour cells, these 'artificial' cancer cells proliferated rapidly and were able to leave their home tissue and grow elsewhere," said the study.

"When implanted in laboratory animals, they also gave rise to tumours that were structurally, behaviorally, and genomically similar to human HGSOC (high-grade serious ovarian cancer)."

Drapkin said the findings demonstrate that fallopian cells are the source of ovarian cancer, and offer clues for future treatment.

"Such studies will help us identify different types of high-grade serous ovarian cancer, as well as possibly discover biomarkers - proteins in the blood - that signal the presence of the disease," said Drapkin, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

"Ultimately, the model will enable us to test potential therapies to determine which work best in each type of the disease."

- AFP/de



Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Ovarian cancer starts elsewhere, says study

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One-embryo limit would save money, lives: study

Posted: 15 April 2011

The most common techniques are in-vitro fertility (IVF) and a technique called intra cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)
WASHINGTON : If women undergoing fertility treatment were limited to one embryo transfer at a time, lives and money would be saved due to fewer complications from multiple births, Canadian doctors said on Thursday.

"Across Canada, there would be as many as 840 fewer babies admitted to the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit), 40 deaths avoided, 46 fewer brain injuries, and 42,400 fewer days of NICU hospitalisation," said Keith Barrington, lead author of the study in the US Journal of Pediatrics.

Each day a baby spends in the NICU costs about US$1,000, meaning some US$42.4 million could be saved per year by restricting embryo transfers, according to the data compiled by doctors at the University of Montreal.

Women and couples who are having trouble getting pregnant often opt for in vitro fertilization (IVF), which involves combining the egg and sperm outside the womb and then implanting the fertilized embryo in the woman's uterus.

Patients may opt for multiple embryo transfers in the hopes it will increase their chances of getting pregnant, and to cut back on the number of times the costly procedure - usually between US$10,000 and US$15,000 - is performed.

But Montreal researchers decided to examine records from the Royal Victoria Hospital in Quebec and see what the impact of IVF had been on creating twins, triplets and other multiples.

Last year, Quebec established a new policy that the government of the Francophone province would pay for three cycles of IVF for people seeking it, but set a mandate of one embryo transfer at a time.

The Montreal doctors' study predates that policy, looking back at records from 2005 to 2007.

During that period, 17 percent of babies sent to the NICU - a total of 82 infants - were from multiple births resulting from fertility treatment. Seventy-five were from specifically IVF transfer of multiple embryos.

"Among these 75 babies, there were six deaths, five babies who developed a brain bleed, and four babies who developed a potentially blinding eye condition," said Barrington, a doctor at the University of Montreal.

If the rest of Canada were to follow the same one-embryo policy as Quebec, multiple birth rates and their complications could be drastically cut, the study argued, recommending that any regulation be accompanied by a policy of reimbursement for any additional costs to the parents-to-be.

"Since July 2010, all of the fertility centres in Quebec have adopted this approach, and preliminary results show that twin gestation rates have dropped from 30 percent to 3.8 percent," Barrington said.

Similar policy in the United States would result in even more benefits, because US doctors performed 20 times as many IVF procedures as in Canada in 2008, the study said.

One percent of births in the United States are a result of IVF, which results in 16 percent of twin births and 38 percent of triplets.

- AFP/al



Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
One-embryo limit would save money, lives: study

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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Two (drugs) against one: obesity put in check

I'm sure many will welcome this drug combi. And just about after WHO's call on the world to keep a tab on atibiotics use, or rather, abuse, I'm now asking in my mind, will this drug be abused as well?

Those who would slim down, will this drug become a license to indulge, since they can resort to taking this pill and slim down again - only to repeat the process?

Who knows?
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Posted: 11 April 2011

A new drug treatment has been found effective at combatting obesity. (AFP PHOTO)
PARIS: A new treatment for obesity that combines two existing drugs resulted in twice as much weight loss as the only approved long-term anti-obesity medication, according to a study released on Monday.

A mix of Phentermine and topiramate, sold under the brand name of Topamax, was shown in clinical trials to be twice as effective as orlistat, which is commercialised in some countries as Xenical or Alli, it said.

The drug combo appears to have additional health benefits, including improved "markers," or indicators, for blood pressure, sugar levels, lipids and inflammation, it added.

Phentermine is the most widely prescribed short-term weight drug in the United States.

Topiramate is an anticonvulsant approved for treating seizure disorders and migraines. It has been shown to work well for weight loss in obese patients with type 2 diabetes, but -- taken alone -- has also been linked to cognitive and psychiatric side effects.

Lower doses taken with a controlled-release mechanism and in combination with other drugs would likely reduce those side effects, tests have shown.

Led by Kishore Cadde of the Duke University Medical Centre, in Durham, North Carolina, the new trial was conducted over 20 months with nearly 2,500 overweight or obese adults with at least two major health-risk symptoms.

The patients were divided into three groups.

One was given a once-a-day dose of 7.5 mg of Phentermine and 46 mg of topiramate, while a second group was given 15 and 92 mg of the same drugs, respectively.

The third group were given look-alike placebos.

After 56 weeks of treatment, the low-dose group dropped, on average, 8.1 kilos (18 pounds) while the high-dose group shed 10.2 kilos (22 pounds).

Patients given placebos lost 1.4 kilos (3.0 pounds).

Overall, 62 percent of the low-dose patients lost at least five percent of body weight, while 70 percent in the high-dose cohort crossed the same threshold.

Patients given placebos lost 1.4 kilos (3.0 pounds), with 21 percent sloughing five percent off their total weight.

The two-drug treatment was well tolerated physically, with only sporadic cases of dry mouth and constipation, according to the study, which is published by The Lancet.

The high-dose group, however, showed a higher dropout rate due to adverse cognitive and psychiatric reactions.

-AFP/ck



Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Two-drug obesity treatment effective: study

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Abuse of antibiotics

Usually when the alarm goes off, the problem is already there. Question now is, how long will the correction be made, until it is effective? How efficient? How harsh should the penalty be, if there would be violators?
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Posted: 07 April 2011

GENEVA: The World Health Organisation warned on Wednesday that drug resistance fuelled partly by misuse of antibiotics is killing hundreds of thousands of people a year and that urgent action was needed on the issue.

"We're really seeing an accelerated evolution in the spread of this problem and the bottom line is that the problem is outpacing the solutions," said Keiji Fukuda, WHO assistant director general.

Health experts noted that few countries across the world had plans to deal with the problem, which was increasing amid increased consumption of antibiotics.

"In the vast majority of the countries - there are no plans, no budgets, there are no accountability lines for this extremely serious problem," said Mario Raviglione, who heads the WHO's campaign against tuberculosis.

"Surveillance systems are weak, they are absent in many places," he noted, adding that the quality of antibiotics is questionable in some of these countries.

"Sub-optimal doses are actually those that steer the mechanism to develop drug resistance. The use of antibiotics is often inappropriate, we call it irrational. It facilitates the creation of drug resistance."

In addition, the use of antibiotics in livestock production - to promote growth and prevent diseases as well as to treat sick animals - also contributes to increased drug resistance.

Any drug-resistant microbes developed in livestock can be transferred to humans through the food chain.

As microbes will always seek to become resistant to drugs, "the problem is never going to go away," noted Fukuda.

"The more important issue is how long it would be to step up to the plate and get action underway," he said.

The UN health agency is highlighting the problem on the occasion of this year's World Health Day.

It wants governments, but also civil society and the pharmaceutical industry to come up with strategies to deal with drug resistance.

Raviglione acknowledged that incentives would be necessary to get profit-driven drug-makers to invest in solutions.

"If you try to estimate how much the industry today invests in antibiotic resistance, the statistics are not available but the best estimate is five percent because it's not considered the real market. Can they do more? Yes.

"But the only way is to really study incentives that will place the industry in a much more comfortable position to continue the development of antibiotics."

- AFP/de



Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
WHO calls for urgent action on antibiotic use

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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Sleeping: Health risks and misconceptions

A child sleeping.Image via WikipediaThere is an article about the need of a person for sleep, and what it is for. I recall what one Silicon Valley top guy said, about the need to sleep, which is 'disturbing', due to the nature of their work: conceiving and starting up companies.

That's it for him, anyway, since after becoming very rich, that's all he's got afterwards.

The article was written by Ronald M. Harper, Ph D, and it is quite a long one, so I would suggest that you go there directly for reading.

It is from DigitalJournal.com;

Stay conscious about sleeping: Health risks and misconceptions


Till then!

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Monday, April 18, 2011

Trim figure worth shorter life, say British women

I would immediately say, "What foolishness!" but then again, I thought, why not? Many things come into play, and these people have the right to decide the way they would live their 'ideal' life, in 'ideal' figure...
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Posted: 05 April 2011

PARIS - Thirty percent of British women surveyed at 20 universities said they would shorten their lives by a year or more in exchange for an ideal body weight, according to a survey released on Monday.

Ten percent said two-to-five years was not too high a price to pay for being svelte and shapely, while three percent were willing to give up a decade or more.

"The findings highlight that body image is an issue for all women and not just adolescent girls," said Philippa Diedrichs, a professor at the University of the West of England and the main architect of the survey.

The age of the 320 women surveyed was just under 25 years on average, and ranged from 18 to 65.

The study showed a disconcerting gap between reality and image when it came to self-perception, Diedrichs said.

Nearly four-fifths of the women surveyed said they wanted to lose weight.

At the same time, however, 78 percent were actually within or under normal, healthy weight ranges.

More than nine out of 10 women said they have had "negative thoughts" about their appearance during the previous week, and a third said such thoughts had occurred "several times a day."

Five percent of the mainly young women said they had already undergone cosmetic surgery, and another 39 percent said they would go under the knife were it not for the high cost.

Other sacrifices that a quarter of the women were willing to make in order to be and feel thinner included £5,000 (5,670 euros, $8,060) from their annual salary, a promotion at work, spending more time with their partner or family, or even their health.

The survey was conducted by the Succeed Foundation, which seeks to raise awareness and provide support for those affected by eating disorders.

-AFP/ck



Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Trim figure worth shorter life, say British women

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Angioplasty is safe alternative to bypass surgery: study

And on surgical operations...
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Posted: 05 April 2011

Surgeons perform heart surgery.
NEW ORLEANS : People who suffer from serious heart disease could benefit similarly from balloon angioplasty as from major open heart surgery, said a study released by South Korean researchers on Monday.

Bypass surgery, in which vessels are taken from elsewhere in a patient's body and sewn onto the heart to replace clogged ones, is the most common method of treating people with left main coronary artery disease.

But the results of the randomised clinical trial of 600 patients who received either angioplasty or bypass surgery showed similar survival rates and about the same number of major adverse events like heart attack and stroke after one year.

Doctors have long debated which method is best for treating the narrowing of the arteries that is the major cause of heart attacks. Angioplasty is less invasive but can require more repeat procedures if the artery restricts again over time.

"In spite of higher revascularisation after angioplasty, it can be a potential alternative if the two treatments have a similar risk of hard end-points, such as heart attack, death or stroke," said Seung-Jung Park, lead study author.

"At the time this study was initiated, there was great enthusiasm about the outcomes of angioplasty, and as a result, off-label use rapidly spread without enough evidence. Therefore, initiation of a randomised study was urgent."

The PRECOMBAT trial's findings were presented at the American College of Cardiology conference in New Orleans. The study is also being simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The randomised study used a primary outcome measure combining four factors to measure safety and efficacy: death from any cause, heart attack, stroke, and ischemia-driven TVR (target vessel revascularisation), or the need for more treatment after renarrowing.

Death, heart attack and stroke rates were similar among the two groups.

Nine percent of patients in the angioplasty group experienced ischemia-driven TVR after two years, compared to 4.2 percent in the bypass group.

"The incidences of death, heart attack and stroke - which are indicators of safety and have a significant impact on mortality - were comparable," said Park.

"Although angioplasty did have a higher risk of TVR, this efficacy end-point does not have a direct association with mortality and thus has a less significant implication than the safety outcomes," he added.

"Therefore we can conclude that angioplasty can be a feasible alternative to CABG (coronary artery bypass)."

- AFP/al



Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Angioplasty is safe alternative to bypass surgery: study

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