The Heart: Heart disease and stroke news and discussions

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Scientists identify how caffeine reduces bad cholesterol
By Michael Irving
February 15, 2022

Your morning vice might not be that guilty a pleasure after all: coffee seems to have a range of health benefits, but exactly how it affects the body to produce these results remains unknown. A new study has identified specific proteins that caffeine works on, which help the liver remove bad cholesterol from the bloodstream and protect against cardiovascular disease.

Several large-scale, long-term studies have revealed that coffee is good for you in various ways. One study tracked the coffee habits of more than half a million people across Europe for 16 years, and found that those who consumed the most had significantly lower mortality rates than those who abstained. Other research has linked coffee to reductions in prostate cancer, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and heart disease.

Observations are one thing, but scientists hadn’t identified many mechanisms for how compounds in coffee, particularly caffeine, might bestow these benefits. So for the new study, researchers at McMaster University investigated what might be behind caffeine’s apparent knack for preventing cardiovascular disease.

The team found that regular caffeine consumption was linked to lower levels of a protein called PCSK9 in the bloodstream. Lower levels of this protein boosts the liver’s ability to break down LDL cholesterol, the “bad” type that can block arteries and lead to cardiovascular disease. Not only did caffeine and derivatives of it work directly on PCSK9, but the researchers found that it also blocked the activation of another protein called SREBP2. This in turn also reduces levels of PCSK9 in the blood.
https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/c ... olesterol/
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Ken_J
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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6315948/

The Effects of Flavonoids on Cardiovascular Health: A Review of Human Intervention Trials and Implications for Cerebrovascular Function
Whilst there is now a fairly large body of evidence for the effect of flavonoids on vascular health and blood flow in the periphery, effects of flavonoids on cerebrovascular health and blood flow in the brain is an emerging area of research. Evidence suggests that flavonoids may have a neuroprotective effect, with the potential to slow the cognitive decline typically associated with ageing
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Daily Activities Like Washing Dishes Reduced Heart Disease Risk in Senior Women

February 22, 2022

Seniors take note, running or brisk walking is not the only way to reduce the risk of heart disease. Simply being “up and about” performing routine activities, referred to as daily life movement, including housework, gardening, cooking and self-care activities like showering can significantly benefit cardiovascular health.

Compared to women with less than two hours per day of daily life movement, those women with at least four hours of daily life movement had a 43% lower risk of cardiovascular disease, 43% lower risk of coronary heart disease, 30% lower risk of stroke and notably, a 62% lower risk of cardiovascular disease death.

Reporting in the Feb. 22, 2022 online edition of the Journal of the American Heart Association, a multi-institutional team led by researchers at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at University of California San Diego studied the impact of daily life movement to cardiovascular disease risk.

“The study demonstrates that all movement counts towards disease prevention,” said first author Steve Nguyen, Ph.D., M.P.H., postdoctoral scholar at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health. “Spending more time in daily life movement, which includes a wide range of activities we all do while on our feet and out of our chairs, resulted in a lower risk of cardiovascular disease.”

Researchers used a machine-learning algorithm to classify each minute spent while awake into one of five behaviors: sitting, sitting in a vehicle, standing still, daily life movement, or walking or running. Daily life movement encompasses activities occurring when standing and walking within a room or patio, such as when getting dressed, preparing meals or gardening.

https://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/ ... nior-women
weatheriscool
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Making the invisible visible: Getting a clearer 'picture' of blood vessels in health and disease
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-02- ... blood.html
by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have developed and tested a new imaging approach they say will accelerate imaging-based research in the lab by allowing investigators to capture images of blood vessels at different spatial scales. Tested in mouse tissues, the method, dubbed "VascuViz," includes a quick-setting polymer mixture to fill blood vessels and make them visible in multiple imaging techniques. The approach enables researchers to visualize the structure of a tissue's vasculature, which in conjunction with detailed mathematical models or complementary images of other tissue elements can clarify the complex role of blood flow in health and disease, say the researchers. The combined images of the blood vessels should not only enhance the study of the biology of diseases that involve abnormalities in blood flow, such as cancer and stroke, but also advance our understanding of the structures and functions of tissues throughout the body, they say.

The report published Feb. 10 in Nature Methods.

"Usually, if you want to gather data on blood vessels in a given tissue and combine it with all of its surrounding context like the structure and the types of cells growing there, you have to re-label the tissue several times, acquire multiple images and piece together the complementary information," says Arvind Pathak, Ph.D., professor of radiology, biomedical and electrical engineering and member of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "This can be an expensive and time-consuming process that risks destroying the tissue's architecture, precluding our ability to use the combined information in novel ways."
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Lipid profiling can predict risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease decades before onset
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-03- ... sease.html
by Public Library of Science

Simultaneous measurement of dozens of types of fats in the blood ("lipidomics") can predict the risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) years in the future, according to a new study publishing March 3rd in the open-access journal PLOS Biology from Chris Lauber of Lipotype, Germany, and colleagues. Such early prediction through lipidomic profiling may provide the basis for recommending diet and lifestyle interventions before disease develops.

Current assessment of risk for T2D and CVD relies largely on patient history and current risk behaviors, and the levels and ratio of two major blood lipids, high- and low-density cholesterol. But the blood contains over one hundred other types of lipids, which are thought to reflect at least in part aspects of metabolism and homeostasis throughout the body.
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Observational study finds considerable variation in performance between different artificial heart valves
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-03- ... alves.html
by Karolinska Institutet

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have studied long-term morbidity and mortality in individuals who have had different models of biological heart valves implanted. The results, which show that there are considerable differences in performance depending on model group, are published in the journal JAMA Network Open.

The aortic valve is located between the heart and the aorta and ensures that blood is pumped in the correct direction. In aortic valve disease, it is often necessary to remove the sick aortic valve and replace it with an artificial one, the most common being a biological prosthetic valve.

Using the Swedish Cardiac Surgery register (part of SWEDEHEART), researchers at Karolinska Institutet were able to identify nearly 17,000 patients who had received a bioprosthetic aortic valve in Sweden between 2003 and 2018. This information was complemented with data from the records kept by the National Board of Health and Welfare and socioeconomic data from Statistics Sweden. After adjusting for baseline factors, the risk of needing a replacement prosthetic valve after 10 years was estimated to be 3.6% for those who had received the best-performing model group (Perimount) compared with 12.2 and 11.7% for the two poorest-performing model groups (Mitroflow/Crown and Soprano, respectively).
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Scientists validate a low-risk diagnostic test for coronary artery disease
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-03- ... onary.html
by University of Glasgow
Led by Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, researchers from 31 European clinical institutions, including a team from the University of Glasgow, worked together as part of the DISCHARGE trial. The aim of the trial was to test whether cardiac computed tomography (CT) was as reliable as catheterization—the current standard diagnostic test for intermediate-risk patients—in people with suspected coronary artery disease.

A comprehensive analysis of the study's results, which has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggests that CT offers a similar level of diagnostic accuracy, in addition to being associated with a lower risk of complications.

The research team from the University of Glasgow, who included includes Professors Colin Berry and Christian Delles alongside Honorary Professor Giles Roditi, recruited 48 patients into the trial, who underwent either invasive coronary angiography or CT coronary angiography. Collaborating with colleagues in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Golden Jubilee, the team followed study participants up over approximately four years, via a combination of questionnaires/surveys and remote follow-up via electronic health records.
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Identifying risk factors following ICH strokes
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-03-factors-ich.html
by Tim Tedeschi, University of Cincinnati

A new study led by University of Cincinnati researchers provides new insights on how different risk factors following one of the most severe types of stroke can affect patient outcomes.

Daniel Woo, MD, said intracerebral hemorrhages (ICH) are caused when a blood vessel bursts inside the brain and causes bleeding in the brain. ICH strokes are often deadly and can cause high neurological disability.

Up to this point, many different factors have been generally reported to be associated with a higher likelihood of disability or death following an ICH stroke, but Woo said there was a need for more specific data.

To learn more, Woo led a cohort study analyzing outcome data three months after an ICH event from one of the largest-ever prospectively recruited group of patients, which included 1,000 non-Hispanic white, 1,000 non-Hispanic Black and 1,000 Hispanic patients. The results of the study were recently published in JAMA Network Open.
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Folding design leads to heart sensor with smaller profile
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-03-hea ... ofile.html
by American Institute of Physics
As advances in wearable devices push the amount of information they can provide consumers, sensors increasingly have to conform to the contours of the body. One approach applies the principles of kirigami to give sensors the added flexibility.

Researchers want to leverage the centuries-old art of cutting paper into designs to develop a sensor sheet that can stretch and breathe with the skin while collecting electrocardiographic data. In Applied Physics Reviews, the sensor made by researchers in Japan uses cuts in a film made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) printed with silver electrodes to fit on a person's chest to monitor his or her heart.

"In terms of wearability, by applying kirigami structure in a PET film, due to PET deformation and bending, the film can be stretchable, so that the film can follow skin and body movement like a bandage," said author Kuniharu Takei, from Osaka Prefecture University. "In addition, since kirigami structure has physical holes in a PET film, skin can be easily breathed through the holes."
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Novel nuclear microRNA is being developed for the treatment of cardiovascular disease
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04- ... sease.html
by University of Eastern Finland
A novel angiogenic microRNA drug can be a new option for the treatment of ischemic cardiovascular disease, according to a new study published in PLOS One by researchers from the University of Eastern Finland together with international collaborators. In the study, the researchers describe a novel nuclear acting microRNA.

MicroRNAs are small RNA molecules, which regulate gene expression. Their canonical role is gene silencing by targeting messenger RNAs in cell cytoplasm. However, this novel microRNA, miR-466c, has a different mechanism of action. It upregulates the vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGFA) by targeting the gene promoter in the cell nucleus.

In addition to expanding the academic understanding of microRNA biology, these findings have commercial relevance for the development of novel RNA drugs. Increasing the expression of VEGFA by using small RNAs offers novel options for the treatment of ischemic cardiovascular disease, where the blood supply in the tissue is compromised.
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