AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Heart Disease / 18.08.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sylvie S.L. Leung Yinko, RD MSc Epidemiology '14 Division of Clinical Epidemiology Research Institute of McGill University Health Centre (RI MUHC) Montreal (QC) H3A 1A1 Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: Our study indicates that young female patients with premature acute coronary syndrome (ACS) have lower health-related quality of life (HRQL) than their male counterparts. Whereas “sex” refers to whether an individual is biologically male or female, “gender” is a more complex term that refers to social norms, roles, and expectations that are traditionally ascribed to males and females in a society. We found that gender, rather than sex, may larger explain the differences in health-related quality of life between men and women. Particularly, higher femininity score, lower social support and greater housework responsibilities appear to be important gender-related factors linked with poorer HRQL post-ACS. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Heart Disease / 16.08.2014

Ryan T. Borne MD University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Division of Cardiology Aurora, CO 80045MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ryan T. Borne MD University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Division of Cardiology Aurora, CO 80045 Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Borne: Using the NCDR ICD Registry, we identified Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 years and older with low left ventricular ejection fraction (≤ 35%) who underwent primary prevention implantable cardioverter defibrillator implantation, including those receiving cardiac resynchronization therapy with defibrillator, between 2006 and 2010 who could be matched to Medicare claims. We found that while there were modest changes in the patient characteristics undergoing ICD implantation, there were significant improvements over time in mid-term outcomes including 6-month mortality, re-hospitalization, and device-related complications. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Heart Disease, UT Southwestern / 13.08.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Hurst M. Hall, MD and Sandeep Das, MD, MPH Division of Cardiology University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Dallas, TX Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: Most patients treated for a heart attack in the United States during this study period were discharged home on 325 mg of aspirin a day.  This was true even among subgroups expected to be at high bleeding risk. In addition, there was tremendous variability in the proportional use of this higher dose aspirin across hospitals, suggesting a prominent local influence on prescribing patterns. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Heart Disease / 13.08.2014

Susan Cheng MD Cardiovascular Division, Brigham and Women's Hospital Boston, MA 02115MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Susan Cheng MD Cardiovascular Division, Brigham and Women's Hospital Boston, MA 02115   Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Cheng: We've known for some time that smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity all contribute to a person’s risk of being at risk for heart disease. The goal of our study was to look back over the last two decades and see how we've been doing in reducing the impact of these major cardiovascular risk factors on the actual risk for developing heart and vascular disease. We found that, not surprisingly, we've been doing generally better over time at lowering the overall impact of some risk factors such as smoking and high cholesterol. On the other hand, the impact of hypertension and diabetes has been high and has remained high over time. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Cognitive Issues, Stroke / 09.08.2014

Kumar Bharat Rajan, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Internal Medicine Section of Population Sciences Chicago IL 60612MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kumar Bharat Rajan, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Internal Medicine Section of Population Sciences Chicago IL 60612 Medical Research: What are the main findings of the paper? Dr. Rajan: Lower levels of cognitive functioning was associated with incident stroke and the change in cognitive functioning was increased after incident stroke. Cognitive functioning was an independent marker of mortality even after accounting for incident stroke. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Heart Disease / 08.08.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Rakesh K. Mishra, MD San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center San Francisco, CA 94121. Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Mishra: Increased levels of both BNP and NT-proBNP are associated with elevated risk of adverse cardiovascular events in patients with stable coronary artery disease. However, when added to existing clinical models of risk, NT-proBNP is superior to BNP for risk reclassification. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Tobacco Research / 28.07.2014

Gabriel Arefalk Department of Medical Sciences Uppsala University Hospital Uppsala, SwedenMedicalResearch.com: Interview with: Gabriel Arefalk Department of Medical Sciences Uppsala University Hospital Uppsala, Sweden Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: In this prospective cohort study, we investigated mortality risk in 2474 smokeless tobacco users who had been hospitalized for a myocardial infarction between the years of 2005-2009 in Sweden. We used a nationwide quality register and database called SWEDEHEART and found that those who stopped using snus (the Swedish type of snuff) after their MI had half the risk of dying during follow up relative to those who continued to use snus. This association, which was of the same magnitude as for smoking cessation, seemed to be independent of age, gender and smoking habits, as well as of many other relevant covariates. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Gender Differences, Heart Disease, JACC, Yale / 22.07.2014

Aakriti Gupta, MD, MBBS Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, ConnecticutMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Aakriti Gupta, MD, MBBS Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Connecticut Medical Research: What were the main findings? Dr. Gupta: Using a national database, we found that heart attack hospitalization rates for patients under the age of 55 have not declined in the past decade while their Medicare-age counterparts have seen a 20 percent drop. We also found that among younger patients below 55 years of age, women fare worse because they have longer hospital stays, and are more likely to die in the hospital after a heart attack. Young women were also more likely to have higher prevalence of co-existing medical conditions including diabetes, high blood pressure and higher cholesterol levels. Overall, all patient groups in the study saw increases in these conditions including diabetes and high blood pressure in the past decade. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Heart Disease / 21.07.2014

Kanako K. Kumamaru, MD PhD Assistant Professor, Departments of Radiology Brigham and Women’s Hospital & Harvard Medical School Boston, MA 02446MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kanako K. Kumamaru, MD PhD Assistant Professor, Departments of Radiology Brigham and Women’s Hospital & Harvard Medical School Boston, MA 02115 Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Kumamaru: When a patient does not have diabetes and had no or ≤25% coronary stenosis in his/her previous coronary CT angiography (CCTA) performed within 3 years, the probability of newly developed coronary artery disease (CAD) is very low, suggesting no repeat CCTA necessary, even if the clinical scenario suggested CCTA to be appropriate. Especially, when coronary arteries were completely normal at the prior scan, no patient underwent subsequent revascularization during the study period. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Heart Disease / 21.07.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Cheol Whan Lee and Seung-Jung Park Division of Cardiology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan Seoul, Korea Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: The time window of DES (drug-eluting stent) failure is widely variable from soon after DES implantation to several years after DES implantation. We observed patients with late DES failure are commonly presented with acute coronary syndrome. We hypothesized that temporal patterns of DES failure may be different, and analyzed all patients with first DES failure at our institution. We found that late drug-eluting stent failure is more likely to progress to acute myocardial infarction, aggressive angiographic patterns, and worse outcomes following retreatment. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Red Meat / 17.07.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr inz. Joanna Kaluza Department of Human Nutrition Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW Warsaw POLAND Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Response: The most important finding of my study is the fact that processed red meat consumption, but not unprocessed red meat, increases a risk of Heart Failure incidence and Heart Failure mortality. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Stroke / 15.07.2014

Iftikhar J. Kullo, MD Division of Cardiovascular Diseases Mayo Clinic Rochester, MNMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Iftikhar J. Kullo, MD Division of Cardiovascular Diseases Mayo Clinic Rochester, MN   Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Kullo: The main findings of the study are: 1) Family history of stroke or heart attack is associated with presence of significant narrowing (greater than 70%) of the carotid arteries. These are the arteries that supply blood to the brain and narrowing or blockage of these arteries is associated with increased risk of stroke; 2) Having a sibling history of stroke or heart attack was more strongly associated with narrowing of the carotid artery than having a parent with such history; 3) The greater number of relatives with history of stroke or heart attack, the greater the odds of having narrowing in one of the carotid arteries. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Lipids / 14.07.2014

Sripal Bangalore, MD, MHA, FACC, FAHA, FSCAI Director of Research, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory Director, Cardiovascular Outcomes Group Associate Professor of Medicine, New York University School of Medcine Principal Investigator ISCHEMIA-CKD trialMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sripal Bangalore, MD, MHA, FACC, FAHA, FSCAI Director of Research, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory Director, Cardiovascular Outcomes Group Associate Professor of Medicine, New York University School of Medcine Principal Investigator ISCHEMIA-CKD trial Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Bangalore: Our objective was to evaluate whether non-fasting LDL has similar prognostic significance as that of the conventionally measured fasting LDL values. We found that in an analysis of over 16,000 patients from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey that the non-fasting LDL values had similar prognostic significance as that of fasting LDL values for the prediction of long term (up to 14 years) death or cardiovascular death, thus questioning the traditional practice of insisting that patients fast prior to blood draw for a lipid panel. This was also true for other components of the lipid panel including the triglycerides and total cholesterol. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Diabetes, Heart Disease / 14.07.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Alex Dregan Lecturer in Translational Epidemiology and Public Health, Division of Primary Care and Public Health Research King's College London, London Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Dregan: Our study showed that chronic inflammation was associated with increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, specifically type II diabetes and coronary heart disease. The risk of cardiovascular disease increased with the severity of inflammatory disorders. In addition, inflammation also increased the risk of multiple morbidity (two or more cardiovascular diseases). (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Global Health, Heart Disease / 10.07.2014

Anthony Bavry, MD MPH Interventional Cardiology, North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32610MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Anthony Bavry, MD MPH Interventional Cardiology, North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32610 Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Bavry: 1) Among post-menopausal women, the regular use of NSAIDs was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke. 2) Cardiovascular risk was observed among users of celecoxib, naproxen, but not ibuprofen. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Thromboembolism / 09.07.2014

Kirstine Kobberøe Søgaard, MD Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital, DenmarkMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kirstine Kobberøe Søgaard, MD Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Response: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is mainly considered an acute illness with a high mortality right after the event, whereas knowledge on the impact on long-term survival has been sparse. In our study, we used nationwide data on VTE since 1977, and included 128,223 patients with VTE and 640,760 individuals from the general population without a VTE diagnosis. We had complete follow-up data on individual patient level and were able to link information from other hospital admissions and thereby obtain each patient’s entire hospital history, as well as death statistics with specific cause of death. We confirmed the high mortality immediately after the thromboembolic event, but more interestingly, we found that mortality remained increased during the entire follow-up period of 30 years, with venous thromboembolism as an important cause of death among patients with deep venous thrombosis and/or pulmonary embolism. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Heart Disease / 07.07.2014

Peter Kokkinos PhD Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cardiology Division Washington, DC 20422MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Peter Kokkinos PhD Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cardiology Division Washington, DC 20422 Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Kokkinos: The main finding of the study is that we defined an exercise capacity threshold for each age category (<50; 50-59; 60-69; and ≥70 years of age). The mortality risk increases progressively below this threshold and decreases above it. We then calculated the 5 and 10-year mortality risk for each age category. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Electronic Records, Medicare, Stroke / 04.07.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with Hiraku Kumamar, MD, MPH Department of Epidemiology Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA and Soko Setoguchi-Iwata, M.D. Duke Clinical Research Institute Durham, NC 27715 Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: We evaluated the accuracy of discharge diagnosis of stroke in the Medicare claims database by linking it to a nationwide epidemiological study cohort with 30239 participants called REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS). We found that among the 282 events captured using a strict claims definition of stroke, 91% were true events.  We also found that 12% of the overall strokes had been identified only by Medicare claims, strongly supporting the use of these readily available data for event follow-up in cohort studies. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Heart Disease / 03.07.2014

Sripal Bangalore, MD, MHA Director of Research, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, Director, Cardiovascular Outcomes Group, Associate Professor of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sripal Bangalore, MD, MHA Director of Research, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, Director, Cardiovascular Outcomes Group, Associate Professor of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016 Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Bangalore: We found that while CABG was associated with mortality benefit when compared with bare metal stents or first generation drug eluting stent, the gap between CABG and PCI was smaller and non significant when PCI was with newer generation DES. The same was true for repeat revascularization with the magnitude of benefit with CABG descending considerable from comparison with balloon angioplasty to newer generation DES. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Chocolate, PAD / 03.07.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lorenzo Loffredo, MD and Francesco Violi, MD Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy; MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: Dark chocolate is rich of polyphenols; these natural substances exert antioxidant properties and, through an increase of nitric oxide, dilate arteries. Our research group applied this effect to enhance blood flow in a very common disease, the peripheral arterial disease. This disease is characterized by reduced blood flow to the limbs. There are not any drugs that improve this blood flow, but dark chocolate could. Our study suggest that dark chocolate, and only dark chocolate, could reduce oxidative stress and improve blood flow and walking autonomy in patients with peripheral arterial disease. We observed no effect on blood flow, oxidative stress and on walking autonomy in PAD patients after milk chocolate assumption. This lack of effect was probably due to the low concentration of polyphenols in milk chocolate. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Heart Disease / 30.06.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Eddie Hulten, MD MPH FACC FSCCT Eddie Hulten, MD MPH FACC FSCCT and Ron Blankstein, MD FACCRon Blankstein, MD FACC Cardiovascular Imaging Noninvasive Cardiovascular Imaging Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Brigham and Women’s Hospital Bethesda, MD Boston, MA MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Answer:  Although any medical test should be used to change management, the extent to which CCTA (Cardiac computed tomography angiography) findings are associated with medication changes (aspirin and lipid lowering) is not previously extensively studied. Thus, we conducted the largest and one of the longest follow up studies of preventive cardiovascular medications before and after coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA).  We demonstrated that CCTA findings are associated with significant changes in preventive medications after CCTA. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Race/Ethnic Diversity, Stroke / 25.06.2014

Wuwei (Wayne) Feng MD MS FANA Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience Department of Health Science & Research Medical University of South Carolina Stroke Center The Center of Rehabilitation Research in Neurological ConditionsMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Wuwei (Wayne) Feng MD MS FANA Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience Department of Health Science & Research Medical University of South Carolina Stroke Center The Center of Rehabilitation Research in Neurological Conditions MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Feng: Stroke hospitalization rate is decreasing in the elderly, but increasing in the young/middle aged population, but this increase is mainly driven by the increase in blacks (not in whites) which incurred persistent racial disparity in stroke. It has tremendous economic impact as outlined in the paper. Of hospital charges totaling $2.8 billion over 10-year period, $453.2 million (16.4%) are associated with racial disparity (79.6% from patients <65 years). By way of background: 84,179 stroke hospitalizations occurred in South Carolina from 2001 to 2010. Blacks accounted for 29,846 (35.5%) and whites accounted for 54,333 (64.5%) of the strokes. Among blacks, 50.4% were <65 years of age compared to 29.6% among whites. The overall stroke hospitalization rate decreased over the 10-year period. There was a significant reduction in stroke hospitalization rate in the older (≥65 years old) populations, for both blacks and whites. Whereas, in the younger populations (<65 years old), the overall rate of stroke hospitalizations actually increased significantly; however this increase was only associated with black patients. For example, the hospitalization rate per 100,000 for young blacks was 121 in 2001, 139 in 2005 and 142 in 2010 (a 17.3% increase from 2001). This racial disparity was more severe in the younger group with the highest disparity seen in the 45-54 year age groups for both ischemic strokes (having a clot) and intra-cerebral hemorrhagic strokes. (more…)
AHA Journals, Alcohol, Author Interviews, Heart Disease / 20.06.2014

Dr. Darryl P. Leong MBBS(Hons) MPH PhD FRACP FESC Hamilton General Hospital 237 Barton Street East CanadaMedicalResearch.com: Interview with: Dr. Darryl P. Leong MBBS(Hons) MPH PhD FRACP FESC Hamilton General Hospital 237 Barton Street East Canada   MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Leong: The main findings of this study are that while low-moderate levels of alcohol use are associated with a reduced risk of myocardial infarction, this protective association was not seen in peoples of all ethnicities. Secondly, heavy alcohol use (≥6 drinks) within a 24 hour period was associated with a significant increase in the immediate risk of myocardial infarction. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, Heart Disease, JACC / 22.05.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Nileshkumar J. Patel MD Staten Island University Hospital Staten Island, NY, 10304 and Abhishek J. Deshmukh MD University of Arkansas Little Rock, AR MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: We analyzed data from almost 4 million hospitalizations for atrial fibrillation (AF) from more than 1,200 hospitals across 45 states in last decade, and found that -   Hospitalization rates for atrial fibrillation have increased exponentially among US adults during the past 10 years, particularly in those 65 years or older. -   The most frequent coexisting conditions were hypertension (59.99%), diabetes (21.47%) and chronic pulmonary disease (20.01%). -   In terms of geographic distribution of admissions, the hospitals in the South constitute (38.5%) the highest percentage of atrial fibrillation hospitalizations, followed by Midwest (24.9%), Northeast (22.2%) and West (14.4%). -   Overall in-hospital mortality was 1%. The mortality rate was highest in >80 years age group (1.93%) and patients with concomitant heart failure (8.2%). -   The percentage of patients discharged to nursing facility increased from 8.1% in 2000 to 11.5% in 2010 and need for home health care increased from 6.7% to 13.1%. Approximately one fourth of the patients (25.83%) were discharged to long-term care institution if atrial fibrillation hospitalization was complicated by acute ischemic stroke. -   Mean cost of AF hospitalization increased significantly from $6,410 in 2001 to $8,439 in 2010 (24.04% increase, p <0.001) even after adjusting for inflation. This represents an absolute increment in annual national cost from approximate 2.15 billion dollars in 2001 to 3.46 billion dollars in 2010. The mean cost of care was highest if AF hospitalization was associated with heart failure ($33,161) and valvular disorders ($28,030). (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Education / 21.05.2014

Dr. Price Kerfoot MD, EdM Rabkin Fellow in Medical Education Associate Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical SchoolMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Price Kerfoot MD, EdM Rabkin Fellow in Medical Education Associate Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School   MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Kerfoot: (1) An online spaced education game improved clinicians' knowledge of hypertension intensification and generated a modest but significant improvement in time to blood pressure target among their patients with hypertension. (2) As a method to increase clinicians' long-term knowledge, the spaced education game was significantly more effective than providing the identical content via a traditional method (online posting with e-mail reminders). (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Pain Research, Stroke / 15.05.2014

MedicalResearch Interview with: Dr. Teshamae Monteith MD Assistant professor of Neurology Chief of the Headache Division University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Monteith:   
  • A doubling of silent brain infarctions in those with migraine even after adjusting for other stroke risk factors;
  • No increase in the volume of white-matter hyperintensities (small blood vessel abnormalities) that have been associated with migraine in other studies;
  • Migraines with aura — changes in vision or other senses preceding the headache — wasn’t common in participants and wasn’t necessary for the association with silent cerebral infarctions.
  • High blood pressure, another important stroke risk factor, was more common in those with migraine. But the association between migraine and silent brain infarction was also found in participants with normal blood pressure.
(more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Nutrition, Stroke / 14.05.2014

MedicalResearch Interview with: Dr. Yan Qu Qingdao Municipal hospital Fruits and Vegetables Consumption and Risk of Stroke A Meta-Analysis of Prospective Cohort Studies MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Reply: First, both fruits and vegetables were found inversely associated with risk of stroke, and the relationships might be linear. Second, the inverse association of fruits and vegetables consumption with risk of stroke is consistent across subgroup analysis by outcome (stroke incidence and stroke mortality), location where the study was conducted (USA, Europe and Asia), sex (male and female), and stroke subtypes (ischemic and hemorrhagic). Third, citrus fruits, leafy vegetables and apples/pears were found inversely associated with risk of stroke. Fourth, very similar results were found in the subgroup analysis by status [yes: 0.78 (0.71-0.86) or no: 0.79 (0.74-0.85)] of adjusting for 6 or more of the 7 covariates (smoking, alcohol, blood pressure/hypertension, serum cholesterol, physical activity, body mass index, ≥3 dietary variables). These findings generally indicated that the association of fruits and vegetables consumption with the reduced risk of stroke may not be the result of confounding by the known factors. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Health Care Systems, Hospital Readmissions, Medicare / 13.05.2014

Alex Blum, MD MPH FAAP Chief Medical Officer Evergreen Health, Baltimore MD 21211MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alex Blum, MD MPH FAAP Chief Medical Officer Evergreen Health, Baltimore MD 21211 MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Blum: Accounting for the social risk of patients using a measure of neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES), did not alter the hospital rankings for congestive heart failure (CHF) readmission rates. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, Geriatrics, Heart Disease / 08.05.2014

Luisa Soares-Miranda, PhD Research Center in Physical Activity, Health and Leisure Faculty of Sport, University of Porto Rua Dr. Plácido Costa, Porto PORTUGALMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Luisa Soares-Miranda, PhD Research Center in Physical Activity, Health and Leisure Faculty of Sport, University of Porto Rua Dr. Plácido Costa, Porto PORTUGAL MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Soares-Miranda: Modest physical activity, such as the distance and pace of walking, is important for the heart’s electrical well being of older adults. In our study, older adults that increased their walking pace or distance had a better heart rate variability when compared with those that decreased their walking pace or distance. Our results suggest not only that regular physical activity later in life is beneficial, but also that certain beneficial changes that occur may be reduced when physical activity is reduced. This supports the need to maintain modest physical activity throughout the aging process. Even small increases can lead to a better health, while reducing physical activity has the opposite effect. So, any physical activity is better than none, and more is better. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Heart Disease / 02.05.2014

Yoshikazu Goto, MD, PhD Kanazawa University Hospital, Section of Emergency Medicine Takaramachi 13-1, Kanazawa 920-8640, JapMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Yoshikazu Goto, MD, PhD Kanazawa University Hospital, Section of Emergency Medicine Takaramachi 13-1, Kanazawa 920-8640, Japan MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Goto: The main findings were as follows. Dispatcher-assisted bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation for children with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, increased bystander CPR provision rate, and was associated with improved favorable neurological outcomes compared to no bystander CPR. Conventional bystander CPR (chest compression plus rescue breathing) was associated with greater likelihood of neurologically intact survival, compared to chest-compression-only CPR irrespective of cardiac arrest etiology. (more…)