FIBRI

Need to use defibrillators

Defibrillator use can help those who have a cardiac arrest and are easier to use. Nearly quarter of a million people die from cardiac arrest each year in the United States.// Many lives could be saved if prompt action is taken to restart the heart, using an automated electrical defibrillator (AED), a device which delivers an electric shock to the heart muscle. There are moves to put more AED's i...

Defibrillators saving lives but price is an issue

Surgically implanting the heart-shocking devices known as defibrillators in people who have had heart attacks prevented sudden death in nearly one-third of the patients. //Doctors say the findings will likely lead to a dramatic and costly shift in the way they treat millions of heart attack patients by adding a $20,000 defibrillator to the medicines now in use. The study is the first...

Public Defibrillators Found To Improve Survival Rate

Placing automated external defibrillators in public places can improve the overall likelihood someone will survive a heart attack.// Researchers randomly placed AEDs -- devices capable of shocking the heart back to normal during a heart attack -- in nearly 1,000 shopping malls, apartment complexes, and other public places in 24 communities in North America. More than 19,000 volunteers i...

Atrial fibrillation predicts for acute ischaemic stroke

Atrial fibrillation predicts for severe stroke andearly death in patients with acute ischaemic stroke One of the commonest cardiac arrhythmia is atrial//fibrillation. The risk of thromoembolic complicationsfollowing atrial fibrillation is nearly seven timesmore than those with normal sinus rhythm. Previously,studies have shown that AF is present in 15–21% ofpatients affected by stro...

Surgeons Presented Guidelines For Postoperative Atrial Fibrillation

Researchers from American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) had provided clinical guidelines for chest physicians who deal with prevention and management of postoperative atrial fibrillation (AF) after cardiac surgery. Their report was published in the latest issue of journal Chest. The researchers offer specific guidelines relating to cardiac pacing, anticoagulation therapy // , pharmaceutical...

Guidant sold defective defibrillators with full knowledge

Guidant Corporation had projected in an internal report that some patients might die due to short circuits in a heart device, but did not publicize the flaw to retain // acceptability, company records show. A company report shows Guidant had determined in mid-2002 that the consequences of the defibrillator’s electrical failure, though rare, could be 'life threatening.' Despite that asses...

Defibrillators In Public Places Will Help Cardiac Patients

Having defibrillators installed in public places may save lives of cardiac patients, cardiologists believe. The defibrillators work by delivering a controlled// electric shock through the chest wall to the heart to restore a normal heartbeat after a cardiac arrest. Modern defibrillators are becoming increasingly quick and easy for the layman to use, which can mean difference...

Combination therapy for patients treated with Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator

Professor Stuart J. Connolly and his team from McMaster University in their clinical trial reported in the journal JAMA that a combination of Antiarrhythmic drugs such as amiodarone combined with beta blockers such as Sotalol // found to reduce the painful shocks in ventricular arrhythmia patients undergoing Implantable Cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). ICD treatment produces high voltage shocks...

New Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators to avoid unnecessary shocks

Dr. Andrew Grace and colleagues from Papworth Hospital and University of Cambridge with collaboration from Cameron Health of San Clemente has devised new Implantable cardioverter defibrillators, which are devised to detect shock waves // from the whole heart rather than part of the muscle. This new devise helps to detect small alterations in heart rhythms accurately by scanning the whole heart, w...

New Test Identifies Candidates For Cardiac Defibrillator

Several lives were saved in the US in 2005 from the fatal arrhythmias through devices which were surgically implanted in them. // As many as 1,70,000 people in North America received this treatment. Quite a few of the patients also found this to be uncomfortable, unnecessary, and even dangerous. A noninvasive test has been developed recently to find out which of the patients are likely to benefit...

Simulated Heart Tissue Enhances Understanding of Arrhythmias And Defibrillator Failure

Cultured Heart cells that were induced to imitate characters of the heart have led researchers to discern possible reasons for irregular heart rhythms. Studies of // this engineered tissue have unraveled that while electric shocks akin to those produced by defibrillators normally stopped errant waves, in few cases caused them to advance and proliferate. These findings have been reported...

Reliability of Pacemakers and Defibrillators to be Improved

Inspite of the reliability of implanted cardiac pacemakers and defibrillators having improved studies have shown that these devices still tended to malfunction// at times. For the thousands of Americans who depend on the pacemaker or the defibrillator reliability of these devices is an important issue. The pacemaker’s job is to keep the heart beating regularly whereas the defibrillato...

Defibrillators Can Only Put off Heart Failure but Cannot Prevent One

According to the study it was found that Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) were found to increase heart failure //. But they are very efficient in reducing the sudden cardiac death. The results of the study were published in the American Heart Association rapid access journal report. ‘Some patients whose lives were prolonged by ICDs were sicker and more prone to develop heart failure...

Further Studies Needed To Completely Understand About Ventricular Fibrillation

According to a large national pediatric study conducted by Vinay Nadkarni, MD, and Peter A. Meaney, MD, MPH, specialists in Critical Care Medicine// at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia it is found that Ventricular fibrillation (VF) occurs more frequently in children. This is a life-threatening disordered heart rhythms that may accompany full cardiac arrest. It is fatal if it develops later...

Complication Associated With Heart Defibrillators

A small but significant number of patients suffered from complication after having a defibrillator implant to control heart rhythm.// About 4% were found to suffer from moderate to severe complications associated with defibrillator implants. The New York Times analysed the data supplied by the federal government and reported the complications. The most frequent type of complications ass...

Gene That Causes Atrial Fibrillation Identified

Atrial fibrillation affects millions of Americans and is one of the most common causes of heart failure and stroke. But researchers now have identified a gene that is responsible for this chaotic electrical activation of the heart muscle and atrial fibrillation (AF).// 'The discovery underscores the significance of heredity in susceptibility to atrial fibrillation,' explains Timothy M....

Fibrin Fibers More Stretchable Than Natural Fiber

Scientists have discovered that fibrin fibers could stretch to three times its length before going back to its original state, while some could even stretch to six times// their original length before breaking. Fibrin involved in blood clotting is developed in the blood from a soluble protein, fibrinogen. When an injury occurs fibrin is deposited around the wound in the form of a mes...

Omega -3 Fatty Acids Better than Implanted Defibrillators

Omega-3 fatty acids is claimed to prevent more sudden deaths than defibrillators in homes and public places or even implanted defibrillators according to US scientists.// Researchers at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn., compared such preventive strategies by food supplementation and by electronic devices in a computer-simulated community of 100,000 people that resembled the populati...

For High BP Patients, Preventing Enlarged Heart Decreases Risk of Atrial Fibrillation

For high-blood-pressure patients, preventing or reducing enlarged heart (left ventricular hypertrophy, LVH) reduces risk of atrial fibrillation (AF or afib), a life-threatening condition that can lead to stroke and heart failure.// An estimated 20 percent of all high-blood-pressure patients, or 12 million Americans, have LVH and are at increased risk of developing AF. Whil...

New Tool Being Tested to Halt Recurrence of Atrial Fibrillation

Clinical researchers at the University of Pennsylvania Health System are starting a trial utilizing a new mechanism to treat the heart when its electrical pulses// essentially short-circuit, referred to as atrial fibrillation (A-Fib). The biggest problem physicians run into with current therapies to cope with electrical rhythmic pumping problems in the heart, namely pulmonary vein iso...

High-Energy Clamp Simplifies Heart Surgery for Atrial Fibrillation

Heart surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have helped usher in a new era in the surgical treatment of atrial fibrillation. //Using radiofrequency devices — rather than a scalpel — they've greatly shortened the surgery and made it significantly easier to perform. "Because of the devices, the procedure — called the Cox-Maze procedure — has gone from an oper...

Defibrillators Should Be Available in Ski Resorts

As the ski season gets underway, doctors in this week’s BMJ say that more defibrillators should be placed in ski resorts to help prevent sudden cardiac deaths//. Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are electrical devices used to restore a normal heartbeat. They are often placed in busy public places like airports and stadiums. Downhill skiing is the most popular winter...

The ‘Mini’ Way to Stop Atrial Fibrillation in Its Tracs

The ‘Mini’ Way to Stop Atrial Fibrillation in its Tracks: There’s new hope for the hundreds of thousands of Americans with intermittent atrial fibrillation: the 'mini-Maze,' a minimally invasive version of the Cox-Maze procedure //that involves scarring the heart to allow electrical impulses sent by the brain to travel correctly. Richard Lee, M.D., a Saint Louis University School of Me...

Surgeons Develop Simpler Way to Cure Atrial Fibrillation

Physicians have an effective new option for treating atrial fibrillation, a common irregular heart rhythm that can cause stroke//. Heart surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed and tested a device that radically shortens and simplifies a complex surgical procedure that has had the best long-term cure rate for persistent atrial fibrillation. The...

Pulse Pressure Identified as Important Risk Factor for Atrial Fibrillation

Increased pulse pressure (the difference between systolic and diastolic blood pressure) appears to be an important predictor of the risk// for new onset atrial fibrillation, according to a study. Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common chronic arrhythmia in adults and is associated with increased risk for death and stroke. An estimated 2.3 million adults in the United States have...

Defective Defibrillators

The cardiac devices which are used to shock the heart back to normal are found not to be working just// when you need them. One out of five fails to work after just ten years. On research it was found that the wires that connect are at default. The wire or the lead sometimes shocked the heart unnecessary or sometimes failed to work when heart is beating abnormally or completely stopp...

Defective Defibrillators

The cardiac devices which are used to shock the heart back to normal are found not to be working just when you need them. One out of five fails to work after just ten years. On research it was found that the wires that connect are at default. The wire or the lead sometimes shocked the heart unnecessary or sometimes failed to work when heart is beating abnormally or completely stop...

Anticoagulants is Better for Atrial Fibrillation

People with atrial fibrillation (AF) have irregular heart beats and have a tendency to form blood clots in the upper chambers (atria) of their hearts. These clots can then travel to the brain, block vessels and cause a stroke. One way of reducing the risk of this occurring is to give drugs that limit the bloods ability to create clots. Two commonly used options are anticoagulants that...

Fibrinogen may Inhibit Spinal Cord Regeneration

Fibrinogen, a blood-clotting protein found in circulating blood, has been found to inhibit the growth of central nervous system neuronal cells , a process that is necessary for the regeneration of the spinal cord after traumatic injury. The findings by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine, may explain why the human body is unable to repair it...

Use of Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators Canada Lags Behind U.S

The use of life-saving implantable cardioverter defibrillators in Canada is rising, but it is still significantly less than that in the United States. Dr. David Birnie and colleagues from the University of Ottawa Heart Institute report that, between 1995 and 2003, the use of implantable cardioverter defibrillators in adults who survived a cardiac arrest increased from 5.4% to 26.7% in Canada; in...