Studies and Analyses

Mitral valve tissue undergoes dramatic changes during congestive heart failure

Surprising new findings in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology show that the basic biochemical composition of heart valves in patients with congestive heart failure are markedly different than those with healthy hearts, a finding that may explain the mixed success of surgery to repair valve dysfunction in these patients.

The valves of patients with congestive heart failure often

A new study on the determination of how livers are allocated for transplants examined the relationship between liver disease severity and quality of life, and found that the commonly used model for liver allocation is not a reliable indicator of general quality of life.

The results of this study appear in the February 2005 issue of Liver Transplantation, the official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) and the International Liver Transplan

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that sildenafil citrate (Viagra), a drug used to treat erectile dysfunction (ED) in millions of men, effectively treats enlarged hearts in mice, stopping further muscle growth from occurring and reversing existing growth, including the cellular and functional damage it created.

“A larger-than-normal heart is a serious medical condition, known as hypertrophy, and is a common feature of heart failure that can be fatal,” says study senior author

There is no association between two specific personality traits – neuroticism and extroversion – and cancer, according to a new study, one of the largest prospective twin studies to examine this issue. The study, published in the March 1, 2005 issue of CANCER (http://www.interscience.wiley.com/cancer-newsroom), a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, also finds no evidence that personality traits indirectly lead to cancer through behavioral factors, such as smoking.

Patients in highest-quality hospitals have 12-20% better survival rates for common procedures and diagnoses

A new study naming hospitals in the top five percent in the nation in clinical quality is being released today by HealthGrades, the independent healthcare quality organization. The hospitals – 229 out of nearly 5,000 – were ranked at the top of the list based on the death and complication rates of Medicare patients in 28 common procedures and diagnoses, from hip replacemen

Low exercise capacity in rats associated with high levels of CV risk factors

If your New Year’s resolution to exercise is now just a distant memory, there are some rats at the University of Michigan Medical School that may convince you to climb back on the treadmill.

A new research study, to be published in the Jan. 21 issue of Science, found that rats selected and bred for low aerobic exercise capacity had more cardiovascular disease risk factors than rats bred for