|
Next
Event
Friday, September 26, 2008, 07:00 PM: Truthiness and Agnotology
Does the massive increase in communications, brought about by cable and satellite television, and, especially, the internet, help us find truth?
Or does it help spread doubt, confusion, lies, mythology, crackpot conspiracy theories, and the like? As internet bandwidth continues its upward spiral into the future, what should we expect in the future?
More...
|
|
|
|
Heart Disease
|
Scientists provided the first large-scale identification of the proteins involved in coronary heart disease. The information will help to better understand the progression of the disease, improve diagnosis, and detect early pathological signs more efficiently.
Coronary heart disease, which is characterized by abnormal thickening and narrowing of the blood vessels, is the first leading cause of death in the United States.
|
|
Size does matter: Men with short telomeres -- strips of DNA at the end of chromosomes -- may have a higher risk of developing coronary heart disease. And those same men may benefit the most from treatment with cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins, a new British study found.
|
|
Researchers have developed a technique by which a computer can determine the condition of the left heart chamber or ventricle. The computer draws the contours of the heart on the X-ray images and from the wall motion it determines the heart's condition. Previously the contours had to be drawn by hand. The new technique saves time and is reliable.
|
|
One of my favorite new stories in the biology of aging is the body of work demonstrating an unexpected (to my mind, anyway) relationship between telomere length and various “organism-scale�? phenomena, e.g., psychological stress and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Two recent reviews extend the discussion. Kajstura et al. focus directly on cellular senescence, which can be induced both by telomeric shortening and genotoxic damage, in cardiac progenitor cells. Does senescence play a role in cardiovascular aging and the age-related onset of CVD?
|
|
A new risk model developed by European researchers is able to accurately predict vascular events, including stroke, MI, and vascular death, in patients with existing clinical vascular disease. Serum creatinine, age, previous vascular disease, smoking, and diabetes are important predictors for second events, and this new model performed better than the Framingham and SCORE risk algorithms for estimating the absolute risk for recurrent events.
|
|
Scientists have discovered how we put the brakes on a racing heartbeat.
An enzyme acts on the heart's pacemaker to slow the rapid beating of the heart's "fight-or-flight" reaction to adrenaline.
A single cell in the upper right chamber is responsible for setting the pace of the beating heart, triggering its neighbor cells to beat.
Current treatment of arrhythmia requires destruction of tissue surrounding a chaotic pacemaker, followed by insertion of a mechanical pacemaker that can regulate the heartbeat.
"Understanding the molecular regulation of the heart's pacemaker opens the possibility of less drastic treatment options, including drug interventions."
|
|
Several deaths have been reported regarding the controversial use of tasers by police.
Taser energy can result in electrical stimulation of the heart to rapid heart rates.
In a new study researchers examine the first recorded case of taser-induced myocardial capture (a rapid beating of the lower chambers of the heart) in a person with a dual-chamber pacemaker.
The study examined data stored in the pacemaker of a 53-year-old man experiencing non-specific chest pain a week after receiving a taser shot. Although the pacemaker continued to function normally, it registered two high-rate episodes of myocardial capture, indicating a taser-induced rapid heart rate corresponding with the times of taser application.
|
|
In patients with an intermediate likelihood of coronary artery disease (CAD), multislice computed tomography (MSCT) offers diagnostic information that is different from but complementary to that of myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI).
|
|
|
|
