Heart Disease Archive

Screening tests for lung and breast cancer—chest computed tomography (CT) scans and mammograms—may offer clues about a person’s risk of heart disease.

Research we're watching

About 8.5 million Americans have peripheral artery disease, or PAD, in which fatty plaque clogs arteries outside of the heart, most commonly in the legs. The hallmark symptom is calf or thigh pain while walking that goes away when you rest.

The safest, most effective treatment for PAD is supervised exercise training, in which you're monitored while walking on a treadmill. Few people participate, however, partly because of the expense of the regimen. It involves up to 36 sessions of 30 to 60 minutes each over a period of three months.

In the journals

Adequate levels of vitamin D can help strengthen bones and lower the risk for diabetes and some cancers. But research published online April 5, 2017, by JAMA Cardiology found that high monthly doses of supplemental vitamin D did little to ward off cardiovascular disease.

The recommended daily amount of vitamin D is 600 international units (IU) for men ages 51 to 70 and 800 IU for men ages 71 and older. It is not yet clear how vitamin D may improve heart health, but studies have found a higher rate of cardiovascular disease among people with low levels of vitamin D.

In the journals

 Image: © DmitriyDanilchenko/Thinkstock

Omega-3 fish oil supplements can help prevent death from heart disease in patients who've had a heart attack, but a science advisory published March 28, 2017, in Circulation found there is no research to support their use to prevent heart disease in the general population.

Researchers reviewed all randomized clinical trials that evaluated the potential role for fish oil supplements to prevent cardiovascular disease, including two studies published before 2002 and 13 published since then. The studies assessed the clinical impact of fish oil treatment on cardiovascular outcomes, such as heart attacks, strokes, and atrial fibrillation (a heart rhythm disorder).

Because medications cannot effectively treat aortic stenosis, a stiff, narrowed aortic valve needs to be replaced.

Your aortic valve is the gateway between your heart and body. With every heartbeat, it opens to allow blood to flow to your body, then snaps shut to keep blood from moving back into the heart.

As people age, calcium deposits may collect on the hard-working aortic valve, causing it to stiffen and narrow. Known as aortic stenosis, this condition also can result from a genetic abnormality (see "What is a bicuspid aortic valve?"). But most cases are in older people, often — but not always — those with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other risk factors linked to heart disease. In the United States, about three to four of every 100 people ages 75 and older have severe aortic stenosis.

Research we're watching

Aging brains often show signs of microscopic strokes, which result from damage to tiny blood vessels within the brain. Those that occur in the brain's outermost layer — called cortical cerebral microinfarcts (CMIs) — usually don't cause any symptoms. But they are more common in autopsies of people diagnosed with dementia. Now, new research suggests a link between blood markers for early heart disease and CMIs.

The study, published online Feb. 6, 2017, by JAMA Neurology, included 243 people who attended a memory clinic. All had brain scans to check for CMIs and blood tests that measured two substances associated with early signs of heart damage. People who had CMIs (nearly 29% of the participants) were much more likely to have heart disease than those who didn't have CMIs. Higher levels of both substances associated with heart damage were also linked to CMIs — even when the researchers left out people who already had obvious symptoms of heart disease.

The brain's fear center may trigger inflammation and lead to a heart attack. But stress reduction techniques can break the chain.

 Image: © Cardiology Division, Massachusetts General Hospital

A small, almond-shaped area deep inside the brain called the amygdala is involved in processing intense emotions, such as anxiety, fear, and stress. Now, a new brain-imaging study reveals how heightened activity in the amygdala may trigger a series of events throughout the body that raises heart attack risk.

"This study identifies a mechanism that links stress, artery inflammation, and subsequent risk of a heart attack," says study leader Dr. Ahmed Tawakol, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Earlier animal studies have shown that stress activates bone marrow to make white blood cells. These infection-fighting cells trigger inflammation, a process that encourages the buildup of fatty plaque inside artery walls. "But what we didn't know was, does this happen in humans? And what is the role of the brain?" he says.

In older people, angioplasty done through an artery starting in the wrist may have fewer complications than conventional angioplasty done through a vessel starting in the leg.

Exercise and lifestyle changes can thwart heart failure down the road.