Battling Heart and Stroke

It’s Friday again, time for your heart and health news round up. Happy weekend.

CVD obesity watch

Fructose sets table for weight gain without warning

We’ve always though fructose is better, healthier than sucrose - our normal table sugar.

Well, this study shows that “eating too much fructose can induce leptin resistance, a condition that can easily lead to becoming overweight when combined with a high-fat, high-calorie diet.” This study was demonstrated by University of Florida researchers in rats. Fructose has always been used as a healthier alternative to sucrose but it is also found in fruits.

CVD health care watch

Nation’s only citywide electronic health information exchange: Improving health and lowering costs

Regenstrief, Indiana has the only fully electronic medical records system in the US. The system has a database of about 9.6 million patients.

Electronic medical records offer numerous advantages over paper records which are sometimes illegible and very often not where the patient is when he or she needs treatment. Because an electronic medical record allows the doctor to instantly see the patient’s prior treatment, medication history and other details critical to care, errors decrease.

It aims to improve health care services and lower costs.

CVD treatment watch

HORIZONS AMI: Drug-eluting stent safe and effective in the setting of STEMI

After all the controversies about the safety of drug-eluting stents (DES), this is good news. Results from the HORIZONS AMI trial indicate that DES has better efficacy and similar safety profiles as bare metal stents. Some experts think that the cardiovascular benefits are modest. However, the better safety profile provides more confidence.

 CVD diagnostics watch

Exercise test termination has prognostic value in HF

You are on a treadmill or pedometer and you suddenly have to stop. In this scenario during an exercise test for heart failure patients, the reason for stopping can guide the doctor towards a prognosis. Two main reasons - fatigue (exhaustion) or dyspnea (shortness of breathing) - bring about exercise termination. Stopping due to dyspnea suggests higher heart failure severity and therefore higher risk for cardiac events than stopping due to fatigue.

CVD diabetes watch

ASH releases new guidelines for hypertension control in diabetics

How do you manage hypertension in people with diabetes? The American Society of Hypertension (ASH) has just updates its guidelines with “renewed emphasis on early aggressive treatment, the use of fixed-dose drug combinations, and an integrated approach to reducing global cardiac risk.”

CVD sanitation watch

Global Handwashing Day

“Clean hands save lives” is the motto of the first United Nations Global Handwashing Day last Wednesday, October 15. More 3 million children die of diarrhea and pneumonia globally each year, 2 diseases which are preventable by washing hands with soap. The UNICEF was one of the driving forces behind this initiative to help children in many parts of the world without clean water for sanitation. 2008 has been declared by the UN as the International Year of Sanitation.