Many Danes are prescribed NSAIDs for the treatment of painful conditions, fever and inflammation. But the treatment also comes with side effects, including the risk of ulcers and increased blood pressure. A major new study now gathers all research in the area. This shows that arthritis medicine is particularly dangerous for heart patients, and also that older types of arthritis medicine, which have not previously been in focus, also appear to be dangerous for the heart.

‘It’s been well-known for a number of years that newer types of NSAIDs – what are known as COX-2 inhibitors, increase the risk of heart attacks. For this reason, a number of these newer types of NSAIDs have been taken off the market again. We can now see that some of the older NSAID types, particularly Diclofenac, are also associated with an increased risk of heart attack and apparently to the same extent as several of the types that were taken off the market,’ says Morten Schmidt, MD and PhD from Aarhus University, who is in charge of the research project. He adds:

‘This is worrying, because these older types of medicine are frequently used throughout the western world and in many countries available without prescription.’

Each year, more than 15 per cent of the western countries collects a prescription for NSAIDs. This figure increases with age. Sixty per cent of the adult population in Denmark collects at least one prescription for an NSAID within a ten-year period. Heart patients are no exception and previous studies have shown that up to forty per cent of Danish patients with heart failure or previous heart attacks are prescribed NSAIDs.

The study, which was carried out in collaboration between 14 European universities and hospitals, including a number of leading European heart specialists, is today being published in the most prestigious European journal of heart medicine, European Heart Journal.

In the study, the researchers have gathered all research on the use of NSAIDs in patients with heart disease. The survey means that the European Society of Cardiology has now for the first time formulated a number of recommendations about what doctors should consider before prescribing painkillers to their patients.

‘When doctors issue prescriptions for NSAIDs, they must in each individual case carry out a thorough assessment of the risk of heart complications and bleeding. NSAIDs should only be sold over the counter when it comes with an adequate warning about the associated cardiovascular risks. In general, NSAIDs are not be used in patients who have or are at high-risk of cardiovascular diseases,’ says another of the authors, Professor in cardiology Christian Torp-Pedersen, Aalborg University, Denmark. EurekAlert

For patients in intensive care, knowing how much glucose, lactate and other substances are in the blood is a question of life or death. EPFL has developed a miniaturized microfluidic device that will allow medical staff to monitor these levels in real time and react more quickly.
No larger than a pack of chewing gum, the prototype developed by EPFL

Investigators at The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research have discovered that brain scans can be used to predict patients

A teenage girl faced with sudden rapid heart deterioration, a man in the prime years of his life suffering from debilitating heart failure and a former NFL athlete crippled by end-stage heart failure were all successfully treated with a surgical approach pioneered by cardiac experts at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.
The work demonstrated significant benefits of implanting a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) in the right atrium to provide better blood flow through the lungs, giving complete biventricular circulatory support and fully replacing the heart’s function.
An LVAD is a small mechanical pump traditionally placed inside the left ventricle – one of four chambers of the heart, located in the lower left of the organ – to help restore blood flow throughout the body. Unlike an artificial heart, the LVAD doesn’t replace the heart, but it can mean the difference between life and death for a person waiting for a transplant or suffering from advanced heart failure.
‘An LVAD relieves symptoms, such as being constantly tired or short of breath in patients with advanced heart disease,’ said Victor Pretorius, MBchB, lead author of the report and surgical director of cardiac transplant and mechanical circulatory support at UC San Diego Health. ‘The caveat is that the LVAD still depends on the right side of the patient’s heart to function optimally, and right ventricle failure is a common condition after an LVAD implantation, leaving some patients only partially treated. It is difficult to predict and increases mortality.’
Pretorius said biventricular support is required for up to 30 percent of LVAD recipients. Currently, no durable, long-term right ventricular assist device (RVAD) has received Food and Drug Administration approval, and placing an LVAD in the right ventricle, for which it was not designed, may jeopardize the device and heart function.
‘An alternative strategy would be to remove the heart completely and replace it with a total artificial heart, but this strategy does not allow for the failing heart to potentially recover, and there is the risk of the device malfunctioning,’ said Pretorius. ‘All three patients involved in the study were in desperate need of right-sided circulatory support. Our team placed an additional HeartWare HVAD, the smallest available LVAD, in the right atrium, the upper chamber of the heart, to provide right heart support.’
The right atrium is considered a more ideal chamber for placing a mechanical pump to support right-sided circulation. The absence of valve structures ensures unobstructed blood flow into the pump, and the location next to the right lung makes accommodation for the pump’s motor in the chest cavity more feasible.
An LVAD is composed of a computer controller, a power pack and a reserve power pack that remain outside the body and are recharged at night. Patients with the innovative BiVAD approach have to carry a duplicate set for each pump, but Pretorius said this is generally well tolerated.
Two of three patients in the study received successful heart transplants after receiving right-sided circulatory support, and the third patient remains in good condition with both LVADs still implanted.

University San Diego Healthhttp://tinyurl.com/zsjjwuh

Researchers have developed a new technique for killing bacteria in seconds using highly porous gold nanodisks and light, according to a study. The method could one day help hospitals treat some common infections without using antibiotics, which could help reduce the risk of spreading antibiotics resistance.

‘We showed that all of the bacteria were killed pretty quickly . . . within 5 to 25 seconds. That’s a very fast process,’ said corresponding author Wei-Chuan Shih, a professor in the electrical and computer engineering department, University of Houston, Texas.

Scientists create gold nanoparticles in the lab by dissolving gold, reducing the metal into smaller and smaller disconnected pieces until the size must be measured in nanometers. Once miniaturized, the particles can be crafted into various shapes including rods, triangles or disks.

Previous research shows that gold nanoparticles absorb light strongly, converting the photons quickly into heat and reaching temperatures hot enough to destroy various types of nearby cells