Early Morning MIs Have Larger Infarcts

The time of day at the onset of myocardial infarction plays a significant role in the size of the infarct based on levels of cardiac enzymes, with the largest infarcts being seen with onset in the early morning hours, a retrospective study found.

Fibrate Plus Statin May Pose Heart Risk to Women

By John Gever, Senior Editor, MedPage Today

The FDA said it was concerned about trial data suggesting that adding a fibrate drug to a statin increased the risk of cardiac events in women and will convene an advisory committee meeting next month to review the findings.

The agency was reacting to a new analysis of the ACCORD-Lipid trial, which tested the addition of delayed-release fenofibric acid (Trilipix) to simvastatin (Zocor) in diabetic patients.

Main results from the trial, announced in March 2010, indicated that the combination did not reduce cardiovascular events relative to patients receiving only the statin drug.

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Depression Care in Hospital Helps Cardiac Patients

By Crystal Phend, Senior Staff Writer, MedPage Today

A collaborative program to manage depression among heart patients before hospital discharge appears to ease both mood and cardiac symptoms, researchers found.

A prospective, randomized trial also found that the program improved self-reported adherence to medication and advice on diet, exercise, and stress reduction six months later, Jeff C. Huffman, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues, reported in the March issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Such programs have proven successful before, but were only conducted among patients after discharge, the group noted.

Their program showed the feasibility of screening for depression and starting treatment during a "teachable moment" while patients were still in the cardiac unit, Huffman and colleagues explained.

Thus "these results may represent a substantial first step in the systematic treatment of depression in hospitalized cardiac patients, a population for whom depression is independently associated with cardiac morbidity and mortality, and effective therapy remains greatly underrealized," they wrote.

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Happy Valentine's Day from SAGE

Happy Valentine's Day from SAGE! February is National Heart Awareness Month,and SAGE wants to ensure that your heart is healthy. Download it's fact sheet, "Ten Things Every LGBT Older Adult Should Know About Heart Disease," and share it with your friends and loved ones. Don't forget to:

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Rescue Breathing May Not Be Needed for Adult CPR

Image via WikipediaBy Todd Neale, Staff Writer, MedPage Today

For adult patients who have suffered an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, rescue breathing may not be a crucial component of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) delivered by a bystander, a meta-analysis showed.

"Our findings support the idea that emergency medical services dispatch should instruct bystanders to focus on chest-compression-only CPR in adults with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest," Nagele and his colleagues wrote. "However, whether chest-compression-only CPR should be recommended for unassisted lay bystander CPR is unclear."
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Medical News: ADT for Prostate Cancer Raises Heart Risks - in Urology, Prostate Cancer from MedPage Today

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By Charles Bankhead, Staff Writer, MedPage Today

Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for prostate cancer can exacerbate cardiac risk factors and may increase the risk of heart attack and cardiac death, according to an advisory supported by four medical organizations.

However, the groups did not offer specific guidelines for clinicians on when to employ ADT therapy or avoid it.

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