CVD News Watch for the Weekend 29 August

CVD treatment watch

New hope for stroke patients

3 hours max. That’s how long a stroke patient has before major brain damage and death occur. If treated within 3 hours, the patient has very high chances of survival and full recovery. After 3 hours, the brain becomes irreversibly damaged.

Anti-nogo, a new experimental approach can give new hope to patients with high risk for stroke. It can potentially restore brain function weeks or even months after the stroke has occurred. The technique disables the nogo protein which inhibits the growth of nerve fibers. In doing so, Anti-nogo stimulates the growth of nerve fibers, thereby compensating for those damaged by stroke.

CVD test watch

Hearts a flutter as exam includes audio portion for first time

It’s something every medical student in the US has to go through – the 3-part medical test. However, this autumn brings new angle (and sound) to the test – cardiac auscultation or listening to the heart. However, the students will not listen to a real patient’s heart beats but audios specially develop for this test. According to one medical professor, many medical students lack the skills to identify heart conditions using a stethoscope and instead depend mostly on very expensive tests for diagnosis. With the audio tests, it hoped that the students get proper training to know the difference between a healthy and a diseased heart by simply listening.

CVD weight watch

Not all fat is created equal

If you are obese, chances are your fat cells are “sick. Researchers at Temple University in Philadelphia report differences in fat cells between obese and non-obese individuals.

“The fat cells we found in our obese patients were deficient in several areas…They showed significant stress on the endoplasmic reticulum, and the tissue itself was more inflamed than in our lean patients.“, according to one study author.

CVD treatment watch

Olive leaf extract may help reduce blood pressure

An article in Phythotherapy Research reported that olive leaf extract at a dose of 1000 mg per day can lower blood pressure in humans. However, large-scale tests are needed to confirm these results.

CVD diagnostics watch

FDA Clears Test to Help Doctors Manage Heart Transplant Patients

The US FDA has approved the marketing of AlloMap, an in vitro diagnostic assay that can determine potential organ rejection among heart transplant patients.

“AlloMap measures genetic information contained in the white blood cells (cells of the immune system that defend the body against invading viruses, bacteria or other foreign material) from a patient’s blood sample.”

AlloMap has been developed by the California biotech company XDx Inc.