German researchers report that doctors prescribed immediate-release nifedipine to about 1 percent of elderly patients in a 260,672-person insurance dataset in 2009, though earlier studies tied the drug to higher heart attack and death risk than other blood pressure medicines.
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Drug
Blood-thinning medication dabigatran ups myocardial infarction risk
A meta-analysis of seven trials in Archives of Internal Medicine linked dabigatran to a 33% higher risk of heart attack or acute coronary syndrome than the comparison treatments. The authors urge clinicians to weigh those cardiovascular harms.
Minerals
Population-wide salt reduction may do more harm than good
A meta-analysis of 167 studies found a low-salt diet lowered blood pressure by 3.5 mmHg in people with hypertension and under 1 mmHg in others, while raising renin, aldosterone, adrenaline, noradrenaline, cholesterol and triglycerides.
Environment
High pollution levels linked to increase in heart attack risk(PR)
Matching 79,288 heart attacks from 2003 to 2006 against hourly pollution readings, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine researchers found raised risk for up to six hours after exposure and none afterwards, suggesting attacks were brought forward rather than caused.
Food
Dairy foods not linked to heart attack
Brown University's Stella Aslibekyan compared dairy fat biomarkers and heart attacks among 3,630 middle-aged Costa Ricans and found no statistically significant effect, with components such as vitamin D, calcium, potassium and CLA possibly protective.
Drug
20% patients not qualified for Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators
Of more than 100,000 ICD recipients in a national registry, 22.5% got the device for a non-evidence-based indication, a JAMA study found. Those patients died in hospital three times as often as the rest, 0.57% versus 0.18%, and had a higher complication rate after the procedure.
Disease
The Alzheimer's and heart attack connection
University of Bologna researchers examined the DNA of 1,800 people and report in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease a shared genetic predisposition in 30 percent of heart attack patients and 40 percent of those with Alzheimer's, involving genes that control inflammation and cholesterol metabolism.
Lifestyle
Miscarriage, stillbirth linked to higher risk of heart attack
An EPIC-Heidelberg study in Heart of 11,518 German women found each stillbirth was associated with a 2.65-fold higher risk of heart attack, still 2.32-fold after adjustment, and more than three miscarriages with a ninefold raised risk before adjustment. Abortion showed no link.
Drug
FDA: Risky diabetes drug Avandia should stay
The FDA will keep Avandia on the market but limit it to type 2 diabetes patients who cannot control the disease on other drugs. Agency reviewers David Graham and Thomas Marciniak, and cardiologist Steven Nissen, had urged a ban, calling the rival drug Actos safer.
Lifestyle
Smokeless tobacco products linked to heart attack risk
An American Heart Association policy statement in Circulation says long-term use of snuff and chewing tobacco raises the risk of fatal heart attack and may raise the odds of fatal stroke and certain cancers. The AHA says nicotine gum or patches are a safer route than smokeless tobacco.
Supplements
Omega-3 fatty acids don't cut risk of heart disease?
In 4,837 heart attack survivors aged 60 to 80, low doses of EPA and DHA or of ALA did not cut major cardiovascular events, researchers reported at the 2010 European Society of Cardiology Congress. Many variables were in play, so the trial does not settle the question.
Minerals
Calcium supplements versus myocardial infarction: What you need to know
University of Auckland researchers pooled more than a dozen trials and epidemiological studies covering 11,921 participants followed about four years, and found people taking calcium supplements were 30 percent more likely to suffer a heart attack. None of them took vitamin D alongside the calcium.
Minerals
Calcium supplements boost myocardial infarction risk
A BMJ meta-analysis of 11 trials and five observational studies found osteoporosis patients taking calcium supplements without vitamin D were 30% more likely to have a heart attack. The link appeared in those whose dietary calcium already averaged above 805 mg a day.
Miscellaneous
Compression-only cardiopulmonary resuscitation beats standard CPR
Two New England Journal of Medicine studies found chest compressions alone at least matched standard CPR: 12.5 against 11 percent surviving to discharge in one, 8.7 against 7 percent alive at 30 days in the other. A 2007 Lancet study suggested rescue breathing may raise brain damage.
Diet
Southern European Atlantic Diet helps prevent heart attack
Comparing 820 heart attack patients with 2,196 others, University of Porto researchers found those adhering most closely to the Southern European Atlantic Diet, rich in fish, vegetable soup, potatoes and wine, were 33 percent less likely to have had a heart attack.
Food
No reason to avoid having sex after a heart attack
In a survey presented to an American Heart Association meeting, only half of men and a third of women said doctors raised sexual activity before discharge after a heart attack, and many then avoided it. Harvard's Murray Mittleman says the risk is negligible and regular exercise nearly erases it.
Disease
Heart attack survivors can have sex as usual
A survey of 1,184 men and 576 women who had heart attacks found only half of men and a third of women were told when it was safe to resume sex before discharge, and both cut back sharply over the following year. Cardiologist Murray Mittleman says the added risk is negligible.
Food
Study: Energy Drinks May Raise Heart Attack Risk
Fifty healthy volunteers drank one 250 ml sugar-free energy drink. An hour later platelet aggregation had risen while endothelial function fell and arterial pressure rose. The authors report only these acute changes in healthy young adults.
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