The traditional way of angiography is accomplished by snaking a catheter through a patient’s blood vessels, where a dye is injected near the heart. Patients receiving this test will receive the same amount of radiation, which is found in other standard test such as nuclear stress test.

When patients undergo CT scans they receive radiation equivalent 600 chest X-rays.

The amount of radiation that that is given to a patient depends on where your health care provider sends you to have the CT scan. Some medical facilities take into consideration the size of the patient, when deciding on the dosage. The smaller the patient, the smaller the dosage. The technician may also pinpoint the radiation to the specific portion of the heart, which shortens the patient’s exposure.

Find more on the the use of CT scans click here for video  Dr. Gupta CNN. 

When you have a complete physical every year, a problem with your heart may not be evident. There are a number of ways to examine the heart such as stress test, CT scans, angiograms and X-rays looking for blocked arteries.

These test are effective in showing the slow chronic built-up of plaque in your arteries that eventually cause blockage. When someone has a sudden heart attack often it is caused by a tiny piece of plaque. The plaque was so small that it was not detected in any test, but suddenly ruptures in their artery.

One doctor explained the sudden heart attack by saying, "plaque is like a piece of popcorn that has been placed in a microwave that all of a sudden bursts open." When this happens a blood clot will form blocking the flow of blood within seconds.

If doctors cannot reliably predict if you’re likely to have a sudden heart attack, prevention becomes all the more critical. Below you will find a list of some of the most effective measures for prevention.

Keep cholesterol levels low: If you have high cholesterol, you can often lower it with the use of medications called statins, which not only prevent the buildup of plaque in arteries, but "stabilize" the plaque so it’s less likely to rupture.

Do not smoke: Smoking is extremely damaging to blood vessels.

Avoid excess weight: Fat is especially dangerous around the stomach. Dr. Cam Patterson of the University of North Carolina explains: "Abdominal obesity is so bad because we know now that fat cells in the abdomen secrete chemicals that irritate the arteries around the heart, making it more likely that the plaque is going to rupture."

Get regular exercise: For a healthy heart, you should get cardiovascular exercise at least 30 minutes a day, four times a week.

You will find more information on sudden heart attacks on the site listed below.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=5180113&page=1

And yet another link to Alzheimer’s disease from another chronic disease process… It seems that anti-hypertensives have proven to benefit in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Such implications could aid in the ultimate cure and care of this dreadful mind altering disease. Just what anti-hypertensives made the list?

…significantly benefit from the treatment with the anti-hypertensive agent Valsartan, found to pharmacologically prevent beta-amyloid production in the brain even when delivered to Alzheimer’s disease mice at doses 3-4 fold lower than the minimal equivalent dose prescribed for the treatment of hypertension in humans. Other anti-hypertension drugs with beneficial results included Propranolol HCI, Carvedilol, Losartan, Nicardipine HCI, Amiloride HCI and Hydralazine HCI.

At this stage in the game this research is highly experimental but could help in the recent push into Alzheimer’s awareness and research. If you have an interest in Alzheimer’s disease please go see Mary Emma at our own Alzheimers Notes. To read more about this research..

This is of great importance. Realizing the signs and symptoms of a stroke can make the difference between life an death and between resolving symptoms and forever disabilities.

tPA is only administered if the symptoms are within a 3 hour window at most ER’s. What happens if you present saying your symptoms started yesterday? Well, first of all you are not fast tracked and wait as a stage or grade 2 patient. Next, you are not eligible to receive any clot busting type medications.

Aldo of importance, how you arrive at the hospital. Yes, believe it or not it does make a difference. If you are having signs or symptoms of a stroke you need to call 911 right away. An ambulance will assure you fast and prompt treatment as well as quicker service on the receiving end. I am a nurse and I can say this with 100% conviction!

Read more

Duke University bioengineers can compensate for the thickness of the skull to see in real-time the arteries within the brain that most often clog up and cause strokes using new 3-D ultrasound technology they designed. This is believed to be the first of its kind- to see past the skull and actually view the major arteries.

This could save many of lives, in emergent and routine situations. What are the real benefits?

The 3-D ultrasound has the benefit of being less expensive and faster than the traditional methods of assessing blood flow in the brain — MRI or CT scanning, Ivancevich said. Though 3-D ultrasound will not totally displace MRI or CT scans, he said that the new technology would give physicians more flexibility in treating their patients.

via Science Daily

“Engineering blood vessels for bypass surgery, promoting the formation of new blood vessels or regenerating new skin tissue using stem cells obtained from the most accessible source — hair follicles — is a real possibility,” said Stelios T. Andreadis, Ph.D., co-author of the paper in Cardiovascular Research and associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

Researchers in the past have shown that there are stem cells in hair follicles but the newest study shows that the hair contains the smooth muscle that can regrow vasculature. Better yet, the engineered blood vessels prepared with smooth muscle progenitor cells from the hair follicles were capable of dilating and constricting which is essential for re-generated cardiac tissue.

Oh I get so excited at this type of research.

via University at Buffalo