Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and partner Athersys, Inc. announced updated results from its phase I clinical trial of MultiStem®, its allogeneic cell therapy product, administered to individuals following acute myocardial infarction (AMI), commonly referred to as a heart attack. The updated study results were presented at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) Conference held in Washington, D.C. The results demonstrate that MultiStem was well tolerated at all dose levels and suggest improvement in heart function in patients.

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Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have for the first time developed a way to visualize coronary artery plaques vulnerable to rupture using multi-color computed tomography (CT), an innovation that will lead to better and earlier diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. The data are published in the September issue of Radiology. Ruptures of atherosclerotic plaques are the cause of nearly 70 percent of heart attacks.

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Acorda Therapeutics, Inc. has announced the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) has awarded a $1 million Cardiac Translational Research Implementation Program (C-TRIP) grant to support research on Glial Growth Factor 2 (GGF2), a novel investigational agent for the treatment of patients with heart failure under development at Acorda. The grant, supporting both clinical and laboratory studies, was awarded jointly to Acorda and Vanderbilt University Heart and Vascular Institute.

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Obstructive sleep apnea is a frequent comorbidity in patients suffering from atrial fibrillation, and polysomnography should be used to diagnose it. According to a research presented at SLEEP 2010: Associated Professional Sleep Societies 24th Annual Meeting, portable diagnostic methods underestimate the incidence of obstructive sleep apnea in these patients.
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Researchers at the University of Leicester, England will use the state-of-the-art genetic techniques to examine DNA from over 20,000 patients with heart disease. The study will help to identify new genes and molecules responsible for Coronary Artery Disease (CAD). This, in turn may help to develop new diagnostic and treatment strategies. Preliminary findings from her research will be presented at the University of Leicester on 24 June.

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A regional quality improvement effort aimed at increasing the use of preoperative beta-blocker (BB) usage to help prevent postoperative myocardial infarction (POMI) was revealed at the 64th Vascular Annual Meeting® presented by the Society for Vascular Surgery®. This quality improvement effort was implemented at 11 centers participating in participating in the Vascular Study Group of New England (VSGNE) from 2003 through 2008.

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Drugs to lower cholesterol and prevent heart disease, taken by millions of people worldwide, increase the risk of cataracts, kidney failure, muscle pain and liver dysfunction, a study of more than 2 million Britons found.
The findings paint a fuller picture of the long-term risks of medications known as statins, such as Pfizer Inc.’s Lipitor, the world’s top-selling drug, and AstraZeneca Plc’s Crestor, the researchers said. The study, released today by the British Medical Journal, failed to validate a range of potential benefits, other than lowering cholesterol, attributed to statins and quantified some risks.

A University of Maryland School of Pharmacy study shows that among patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) who discharged themselves from the hospital early the treatment cost if they are readmitted runs 9 percent higher compared to CVD patients who had been formally discharged.

In first-of-its-kind research, Eberechukwu Onukwughaand colleagues studied the records of 347,572 cardiovascular patients in several Maryland hospitals from 2000 to 2005, including 19,779 who were readmitted to the same hospital for further CVD-related care.

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A paper published in the June issue of IJCP, the International Journal of Clinical Practice, shows that men with ED will often develop coronary symptoms within two to three years of impotence and actually experience a cardiovascular event, such as a heart attack, within three to five years.

The authors stress that it is vital that clinicians stabilize cardiovascular function and control any symptoms before even considering initiating any ED therapy.

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