Scientists at the HZI discover the causes of rheumatic heart disease.

Worldwide develop about 15 million children annually in the rheumatic heart disease; half a million die of it. At the beginning of the medical history of these children a simple throat infection is streptococcus - spherical bacteria which may be responsible for many different infections. But only certain streptococcal types trigger a whole chain of reactions in the body that ultimately lead to life-threatening rheumatic heart disease.

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A current study by the Department of Cardiology at the UKS came to surprising results

The study included 1857 patients with chronic heart failure and 829 attending physicians. The concomitant diseases, the symptoms of the heart failure and the treatment decisions of the doctors were examined: Influence of the gender of the patient and the treating doctor on the guideline-based therapy of chronic heart failure (Magnus Baumhäkel MD, Ulrike Müller MD, Michael Böhm MD)

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Genetic deactivation protects against chronic heart failure in animal experiments / Heidelberg cardiologists publish in "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences"

An enzyme makes the mouse heart susceptible to chronic cardiac insufficiency: if it is switched off, the heart remains efficient despite increased stress. Cardiologists from the Medical University Hospital Heidelberg, together with scientists from the University of Texas in Dallas and the University Hospital Göttingen, have elucidated this key mechanism in a mouse model and thus discovered a promising approach for the targeted prevention of chronic heart failure. The work has been published online in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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"Has a doctor ever diagnosed you with high blood pressure / hypertension?" In the latest telephone health survey by the Robert Koch Institute, over 50 percent of the participants over 65 years of age answered this question in the affirmative. However, many sufferers are unaware of their high blood pressure. Others, on the other hand, are not treated or not treated adequately, or they refuse to change their lifestyle to lower blood pressure, although high blood pressure is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular diseases such as stroke or heart attack. Hypertension is the topic of the new issue of health reporting. On around 30 pages, it contains information on the clinical picture, distribution, risk factors, prevention, treatment, use of medical or preventive services and costs.

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German premiere at the Asklepios Klinik Harburg

For the first time in Germany, Prof. Dr. Jai-Wun Park (54), chief physician in the cardiology department at Asklepios Klinik Harburg, implanted a new, self-unfolding wire plug into a patient's left atrial appendage using a catheter. The 77-year-old suffered from episodes of atrial fibrillation and was particularly at risk of suffering a stroke because he could not tolerate the blood-thinning medication required in such cases.

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New brochure from the Heart Foundation on anticoagulation

No other cardiac arrhythmia is as common as atrial fibrillation: in Germany, it affects more than 800.000 people. And very many of them - especially older patients - live with the risk of suffering a stroke. At least 15 percent of all strokes are due to atrial fibrillation. In fact, it is the most common cause of strokes in old age. For these people, it is important to protect themselves from strokes through appropriate therapy with anticoagulant drugs, as the German Heart Foundation emphasizes.

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Tiny fragments of the genetic material - so-called "micro-RNAs", which until recently were considered unimportant, could now revolutionize the prevention, diagnosis and therapy of cardiac insufficiency. Würzburg researchers found one in the heart for the first time, blocked it and were not only able to protect endangered mice from the onset of the disease, but also to cure mice suffering from cardiac insufficiency. The scientists from the University of Würzburg describe the results in the renowned science magazine Nature.

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Autologous heart valve and vascular grafts could spare children with congenital defects, many operations

A significant proportion of infants and young children with congenital heart defects need an artificial heart valve, a vascular prosthesis or foreign material for the reconstruction of anatomical structures. This mainly affects children with Fallotscher tetralogy, flap and vascular malformations. So far, one makes do with foreign materials (eg heart valves or vascular prostheses from animal tissue), but they are all associated with characteristic complications: babies and toddlers with congenital heart defects develop as quickly, however, the valves do not grow with. It therefore needs to be operated on several times. For this reason, looking just for this group of patients after an "ideal heart valve" with a lifelong durability and a potential for growth and a regenerative capacity comparable with its own biological tissue.

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International CorE 64 study shows: Computed tomography (CT) wins an increasingly important role as a non-invasive diagnostic methods for vascular constrictions of the heart

For the first time radiologists (including Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Johns Hopkins University, USA) examined the reliability of CT findings of the heart compared to the minimally invasive cardiac catheterization in an international and multi-center study. The result: With the non-invasive computed tomography is in need of treatment vasoconstriction allows the reliable detection, in the exact assessment of the severity of vasoconstriction of the catheter of the CT-based imaging, however, was superior. Privatdozent Dr. Marc Dewey, Department of Radiology at the Charité in Berlin and head of the study from the German side: "The result gives us confidence The study shows that we are close to the computed tomography angiography on the heels.."

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Scientists at the German Institute of Human Nutrition (DIfE) have identified together with doctors at the University of Tübingen a new biomarker, the harder to predict the heart attack and stroke risk. The biomarker is the protein molecule fetuin-A, which is produced in the liver and released into the blood. Researchers have for the first time shown that high blood levels of the biomarker associated with a three- to four-fold higher risk of heart attack and stroke. According to her could fetuin-A are important in the future as a new, independent risk marker for the prediction of cardiovascular disease.

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