Europe
Barcelona, Spain, 1 September: Atrial fibrillation ablation is one of the fastest growing techniques in cardiology and due to the very high number of patients that might be candidates to this procedure, a significant number of resources will have to be devoted to it to be able to treat them in the following years.
Barcelona, Spain, 1 September: An increasing number of heart failure patients are treated with a number of complex devices, i.e. cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT). Recently completed and ongoing clinical trials such as MADIT-CRT and EchoCRT provide evidence of a growing number of CRT patients, in need of individualised treatment.
Lausanne, Switzerland -- Gene Signal, a company focused on developing innovative drugs to manage angiogenesis based conditions, today announced the publication of interim results from a phase II study suggesting that the antisense oligonucleotide GS-101 (eye drops) is safe and effective at inhibiting and regressing corneal neovascularisation (abnormal new blood vessel growth).
Barcelona, Spain, 1 September: Mortality rate following a heart attack has fallen by more than 50% in Europe over the past 25 years. However, because only minor advances in the medical treatment of AMI are expected over the next decade, it is through organisational changes in the pre-hospital phase that mortality rate will continue this decline to below 5%.
Barcelona, Spain, 1 September: The wider use of reperfusion therapy in patients with heart attack (AMI) can save millions of lives in Europe. Effective reperfusion therapy in an AMI patient can cut the individual risk of dying by half. AMI is caused by a sudden blockage of a coronary artery, one of the vessels supplying the heart muscle with oxygen and nutrients.
MAYWOOD, Il -- A therapy called cardiac resynchronization can significantly delay the progression of heart failure, according to a major international study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Barcelona, Spain, 30 August: "Today, transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) represents an effective therapeutic alternative to conventional aortic valve replacement for patients who are at high risk or with contraindications to surgery, and the combination of the transfemoral and transapical approaches further increases the number of patients who can be treated" said Prof Dominique HIMB
Barcelona, Spain, 31 August: Launched in 1999, the Global Registry of Acute Coronary Events (GRACE) is the world's largest international database tracking outcomes of patients presenting with acute coronary syndromes (ACS),including myocardial infarction or unstable angina.
Pedestrians and motorcyclists continue to be those most vulnerable in traffic accidents. A team of researchers has demonstrated an increase in the number of injuries among users of lightweight motorcycles after a law was passed in 2004 allowing the riding of motorbikes with a class B licence (for cars).
Barcelona, Spain, 31 August: A new trial has begun in order to ascertain once and for all whether the best strategy for patients who cannot receive P-PCI is early fibrinolysis, together with mandated angiography. This is the STREAM trial whose principal investigators are Profs Frans van der Werf, Paul Armstrong and Tony Gershlick.
Barcelona, Spain, 31 August: Infective endocarditis (IE) is a severe form of valve disease characterized by infection located in the valves of the heart. It is still associated with a high mortality (10-26% in-hospital mortality). IE is a rare disease, with reported incidences ranging from 3 to 10 episodes/100,000 people per year.
Previous guidelines were published in 2004.
The ability to digest the milk sugar lactose first evolved in dairy farming communities in central Europe, not in more northern groups as was previously thought, finds a new study led by UCL (University College London) scientists published in the journal PLoS Computational Biology.
Two tiny worms much smaller than a rice grain and a strange crustacean that has no eyes and poisonous fangs are among several new species of marine life discovered in an underwater cave by a Texas A&M University at Galveston researcher, who has had one of the new species named after him.
Shell beads newly unearthed from four sites in Morocco confirm early humans were consistently wearing and potentially trading symbolic jewellery as early as 80,000 years ago. These beads add significantly to similar finds dating back as far as 110,000 in Algeria, Morocco, Israel and South Africa, confirming these as the oldest form of personal ornaments.
As temperatures soar, scientists have been collecting data amid the ancient ruins that symbolise the birthplace of western culture. These data, combined with measurements from aircraft and satellites, promise to improve 'urban heat island' forecasts to make life in modern-day Athens easier during heat waves.
