http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Researchers have been able to see how heart failure affects the surface of an individual heart muscle cell in minute detail, using a new nanoscale scanning technique developed at Imperial College London. The findings may lead to better design of beta-blockers, the drugs that can slow the development of heart failure, and to improvements in current therapeutic approaches to treating heart failure and abnormal heart rhythms. http://phys.org/news186328485.html Medicine & Health Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:00:01 EST news186328485 Black women are at significantly increased risk for developing a potentially deadly weakening of the heart muscle around the time of childbirth, researchers report. http://phys.org/news186059550.html Medicine & Health Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:50:01 EST news186059550 Scientists are reporting the first-ever data to show that the enzyme calcineurin is critical in controlling normal development and function of heart cells, and that loss of the protein leads to heart problems and death in genetically modified mice. http://phys.org/news185798488.html Chemistry Fri, 19 Feb 2010 11:10:01 EST news185798488 UCSF researchers have discovered that a protein called B1N1 is necessary for the heart to contract. The findings, published in the Feb. 16 issue of the open access journal PLoS Biology, shed light not only on what makes a heart beat but also on heart failure, a disease where cardiac cells are no longer able to contract and pump blood through the body. http://phys.org/news185520068.html Medicine & Health Tue, 16 Feb 2010 05:21:35 EST news185520068 (PhysOrg.com) -- Squeezing into a tight pair of pants can be a painful experience, but a new type of "pants" recommended for certain heart patients actually squeezes back and provides pain relief. http://phys.org/news184488543.html Medicine & Health Thu, 04 Feb 2010 06:49:37 EST news184488543 Several lines of evidence, including the observation that the protein I-1 is downregulated in human failing hearts, have led to the suggestion that gene therapy to express a constitutively active form of the protein (I-1c) might provide a new approach to treating heart failure. http://phys.org/news182503138.html Medicine & Health Tue, 12 Jan 2010 07:40:01 EST news182503138 Researchers at the Indiana University and Stanford University schools of medicine have determined how a "chemical chaperone" does its job in the body, which could lead to a new class of drugs to help reduce the muscle damage caused by heart attacks. http://phys.org/news182326944.html Chemistry Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:00:01 EST news182326944 (PhysOrg.com) -- The American Heart Association estimates 700,000 Americans will experience a myocardial infarction, or heart attack, each year. For the most severe cases, patient outcome often depends on the speed with which a patient is diagnosed and transported to a catheterization lab. http://phys.org/news182185446.html Medicine & Health Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:20:01 EST news182185446 A team of Johns Hopkins and other researchers have found in animal experiments that an antidepressant developed over 40 years ago can blunt and even reverse the muscle enlargement and weakened pumping function associated with heart failure. http://phys.org/news182079009.html Medicine & Health Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:30:43 EST news182079009 Johns Hopkins biomedical engineers, working with colleagues in Korea, have produced a laboratory chip with nanoscopic grooves and ridges capable of growing cardiac tissue that more closely resembles natural heart muscle. http://phys.org/news180116595.html Nanotechnology Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:24:23 EST news180116595 Almost a century after it was discovered in fruit flies with notches in their wings, the Notch signalling pathway may come to play an important role in the recovery from heart attacks. In a study published today in Circulation Research, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Monterotondo, Italy, are the first to prove that this signalling pathway targets heart muscle cells and thus reveal its crucial role in heart development and repair. http://phys.org/news179662276.html Medicine & Health Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:48:16 EST news179662276 A novel technology involving use of stem cells, developed by Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers, has been applied to provide better and rapid healing for patients suffering from complicated bone fractures. http://phys.org/news178802935.html Medicine & Health Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:50:02 EST news178802935 Over the course of a lifetime, the heart pumps some 250 million liters of blood through the body. In the order to do this, the muscle fibers of the heart have to be extremely durable. The research group headed by Dr. Wolfgang Rottbauer, vice chair of the Department of Medicine III at Heidelberg University Hospital (Germany), has discovered a protein that is responsible for the stability of the smallest muscular unit, the sarcomere. http://phys.org/news178369149.html Medicine & Health Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:10:01 EST news178369149 (PhysOrg.com) -- Even if you never have a heart attack, abnormal blood cholesterol levels may significantly raise your risk of heart failure, according to research reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. http://phys.org/news178219940.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:40:02 EST news178219940 In a new study, researchers report that a class of heart medications called beta-blockers can have a helpful, or harmful, effect on the heart, depending on their molecular activity. http://phys.org/news177941049.html Medicine & Health Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:20:04 EST news177941049 Heart function significantly improved in children and young adults with single-ventricle congenital heart disease who have had the Fontan operation following treatment with sildenafil, a drug used to treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary hypertension, say researchers from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. http://phys.org/news177772537.html Medicine & Health Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:40:01 EST news177772537 The largest national stem cell study for heart disease showed the first evidence that transplanting a potent form of adult stem cells into the heart muscle of subjects with severe angina results in less pain and an improved ability to walk. The transplant subjects also experienced fewer deaths than those who didn't receive stem cells. http://phys.org/news177704058.html Medicine & Health Tue, 17 Nov 2009 18:30:02 EST news177704058 A team of U.S., Canadian and Italian scientists led by researchers at Johns Hopkins report evidence from studies in animals and humans supporting a link between Alzheimer's disease and chronic heart failure, two of the 10 leading causes of death in the United States. http://phys.org/news177611563.html Medicine & Health Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:35:07 EST news177611563 A protein long thought to be a secondary regulator in the heart's response to stressors like hypertension actually appears to be a primary regulator according to researchers from the Center for Translational Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. The data will be presented in the Late Breaking Science session at the American Heart Associations Scientific Sessions in Orlando, Fla. http://phys.org/news177605812.html Medicine & Health Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:10:18 EST news177605812 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have grown a piece of heart muscle - and then watched it beat - by using stem cells from a mouse embryo, a big step toward one day repairing damage from heart attacks. http://phys.org/news174839103.html Medicine & Health Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:26:37 EST news174839103 The source and mechanisms underlying the abnormal heart beats that initiate atrial fibrillation (Afib), the most common type of abnormal heart beat, have not been well determined. However, a group of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, has now identified a population of cells that are like pigment producing cells in the skin (melanocytes) in the atria of the heart and pulmonary veins of mice and humans and uncovered evidence in mice that these cells contribute to Afib. http://phys.org/news174591496.html Medicine & Health Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:00:01 EST news174591496 (PhysOrg.com) -- By mimicking the way embryonic stem cells develop into heart muscle in a lab, Duke University bioengineers believe they have taken an important first step toward growing a living "heart patch" to repair heart tissue damaged by disease. http://phys.org/news174480930.html Medicine & Health Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:56:10 EST news174480930 University of Washington (UW) researchers have succeeded in engineering human tissue patches free of some problems that have stymied stem-cell repair for damaged hearts. http://phys.org/news174139339.html Medicine & Health Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:02:58 EST news174139339 'No major role for fish' in the prevention of heart failure; only a possible beneficial effect in those with diabetes http://phys.org/news173516458.html Medicine & Health Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:01:19 EST news173516458 (PhysOrg.com) -- UA biochemistry researchers apply Nobel Prize technology to develop better diagnostics for heart attacks. Their work also could help predict individual risks of heart disease. http://phys.org/news173109224.html Medicine & Health Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:20:02 EST news173109224 Compounds related to Viagra, which is already in clinical trials to prevent heart failure, may also counter the disease in a different way, according to a study published online today in the journal Circulation Research. The results hold promise for the design of a new drug class and for its potential use in combination with Viagra or beta blockers. http://phys.org/news173030694.html Medicine & Health Thu, 24 Sep 2009 17:10:28 EST news173030694 Supersaturated oxygen (SSO2) administered during catheter-based treatments for heart attack can significantly reduce heart muscle damage, according to a new study reported in Circulation: Cardiovascular Interventions, a journal of the American Heart Association. http://phys.org/news172253019.html Medicine & Health Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:30:04 EST news172253019 A team of researchers led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) radiologists has developed a computed-tomography-based protocol that identifies both narrowing of coronary arteries and areas of myocardial ischemia - restricted blood flow to heart muscle tissue - giving a better indication of clinically significant coronary artery disease. Their report appears in the September 15 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. http://phys.org/news172230356.html Medicine & Health Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:00:02 EST news172230356 For some patients with acute coronary syndromes, the strategy of immediate intervention at a medical center does not appear to result in differences in outcomes in comparison with an intervention performed the next working day, according to a study in the September 2 issue of JAMA. http://phys.org/news171046665.html Medicine & Health Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:10:08 EST news171046665 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. Effective reperfusion therapy provides a timely and sustainable reopening of the blockage. http://phys.org/news170999938.html Medicine & Health Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:59:23 EST news170999938