Monday 19th October 2015- The Guardian: Artery cell discovery paves way for new heart disease treatment

‘A radical new treatment for heart disease [in the form of a drug] could be developed after scientists found cells that can grow into fresh arteries and restore blood supply to the organ.

The work paves the way for natural bypass therapies that coax heart cells into forming new arteries capable of re-routing blood around diseased and blocked blood vessels.

Patients could have the treatment after a heart attack, or as a precaution if they are at risk, to give them extra arteries that would be ready to take over should their own become clogged.

“Whenever you have a blockage in a coronary artery, the blood supply is cut off, and you need a new supply,” said Kristy Red-Horse, who led the research with Katharina Volz at Stanford University in California. “We want to coax arteries to form and grow around the blocked area.”

In patients with coronary heart disease, the arteries that supply their hearts with oxygen-rich blood become narrowed by the build-up of fatty tissues. In some, this narrowing forces blood into a smaller network of neighbouring vessels that re-route blood around the diseased artery.

But these “collateral” blood vessels are not large enough to supply the heart with all the blood it needs. What Red-Horse hopes to do is grow fully fledged arteries that can take over when a heart attack strikes.

“What we really need to know is how to make these big arteries to allow a lot of new blood flow to come into the heart,” she said.

Until now, one of the main obstacles to such a therapy has been scientists’ lack of understanding of how coronary arteries form. In particular, it was unclear which heart cells formed smooth muscle sheaths needed to form new arteries, and whether they existed in adults.’

‘The team has not done studies on the human heart yet, but the shared physiology with the mouse heart makes them confident that the findings could help people. Red-Horse hopes to be growing new arteries in mice in the the next five years.’

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Artery cell discovery paves way for new heart disease treatment

Friday 16th October 2015- BBC News: Northern Ireland heart operations beamed across world

‘Northern Ireland is at the centre of cutting-edge pioneering heart interventions that are leading the way across the world.

Three live operations from Belfast City Hospital were, this week, beamed to the largest cardiovascular interventional conference in San Francisco.

About 450 health professionals from around the world watched cardiologists perform procedures on three women.

These patients had serious heart complications.

Although the procedures are performed regularly in Northern Ireland, they are unfamiliar to many cardiologists in other countries.

It is all down to two doctors who, less than a decade ago, realised Northern Ireland was going to experience a massive cardiovascular problem and set to work looking at alternative ways to perform non-invasive heart surgery.

Speaking to the BBC just minutes before the live link-up with America, Dr Colm Hanratty, an interventional cardiologist, said it was a proud moment for the team.

“We are sharing our skills, very specialist techniques that don’t involve open heart operations but, instead, intervention through the arm or leg, giving little access to the heart,” he said.

“Until recently this wasn’t available. People had to go on living with their debilitating conditions or some may have died.”‘

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Northern Ireland heart operations beamed across world

Thursday 8th October 2015- BBC News: Heart attack test ‘cuts hospital stays’

‘A blood test can more than halve the number of people admitted to hospital with a suspected heart attack, say doctors.

They say the rapid test, which looks for a chemical in the blood, would reduce stress for patients, save money and ease pressure on hospital wards.

Trials on 6,304 people, published in the Lancet medical journal, suggested it was 99.6% accurate.

The British Heart Foundation said the test would produce faster answers without affecting patient safety.’

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Heart attack test ‘cuts hospital stays’

Heart attack test ‘halves A&E visits’- BBC News Video Article

Wednesday 16th September 2015- BBC News: Patch may boost repair after heart attack

‘A prototype patch could help the repair the damage caused by a heart attack, scientists say.

The early work, carried out on mice and pigs, reveals the protein-infused patch encourages the growth of healthy cells and leads to less scarring.’

 

‘During an attack, muscle cells in the heart die because of a lack of blood flow and scientists believe repairing or replacing some of these cells may help reduce long-term damage.

In this trial an international team of researchers soaked a collagen patch in a protein known as Fstl1 and stitched it on to the hearts of animals who had experienced heart attacks.

Though the protein occurs naturally in healthy hearts, it becomes depleted in a key layer of the heart after an attack.

Two weeks later the hearts began to grow fresh muscle cells and new blood vessels, while showing signs of pumping more effectively.

Prof Pilar Ruiz-Lozano at Stanford University (which has patented the patch), said: “Many were so sick prior to getting the patch that they would have been candidates for heart transplantation.

“The hope is that a similar procedure could eventually be used in human heart attack patients who suffer severe heart damage.”‘

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Patch may boost repair after heart attack

Tuesday 1st September 2015- The Independent: This revolutionary technology is keeping hearts beating outside the body to allow for life-saving transplants

‘As the video above shows, this new technology – called ‘Heart in a Box’ – keeps the donor organs pumping outside the body, by circulating warm oxygenated blood through the heart muscle.

This means that surgeons can ‘reanimate’ hearts from people who had recently died and use them to save other people’s lives. Until now, a donor heart could be maintained for up to three or four hours when using the traditional method of ice preservation.’

‘The new technology doubles this time. Mr. Hall, who suffered from leukaemia when a child and developed heart failure after chemotherapy treatments, was only one of the patients who had already benefited from this technology.

According to the MIT Technology Review, there have been at least 15 cases in the UK and Australia where surgeons have successfully used this system in heart transplantations. Currently, not everyone who needs a heart transplant is able to receive one as there are not enough suitable organs available.’

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This revolutionary technology is keeping hearts beating outside the body to allow for life-saving transplants

July 2015- The Lancet: HDL function as a predictor of coronary heart disease events: time to re-assess the HDL hypothesis?

‘The association of high HDL cholesterol concentrations with decreased risk of coronary heart disease was first reported more than 40 years ago, and has since been confirmed in numerous population studies. The strength of this association led to the hypothesis that interventions that increase plasma HDL cholesterol concentrations would reduce risk of coronary heart disease. Although interventions that increase HDL cholesterol concentrations reduce atherosclerosis in animals, trials of niacin and the cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitor dalcetrapib have shown no benefit compared with placebo for clinical outcomes in human beings.’

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HDL function as a predictor of coronary heart disease events: time to re-assess the HDL hypothesis?