Acute Coronary Syndromes

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is most commonly caused by a heart attack (myocardial infarction) where blood flow to the heart is suddenly blocked. This is usually caused by a blood clot from a ruptured coronary artery atherosclerotic plaque. Other causes include spontaneous coronary artery dissection (SCAD), which most commonly occurs in women. ACS is usually treated in a cath lab with angioplasty and the placement of a stent to prop the vessel open.

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Sex-specific thresholds for troponin assays improve MI care for women—but not nearly enough

Using sex-specific thresholds for high-sensitivity cardiac troponin I assays identified five times more heart attacks in women in a recent study of patients with suspected ACS, but major disparities persisted when it came to treating MIs.

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Getting less than 6 hours of sleep could be deadly for heart patients

Sleeping less than six hours a night could significantly raise a person’s risk of cancer or early death if they’re middle-aged and have high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease or a history of stroke, according to work published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

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Frequent, persistent hot flashes predict later CVD events

Frequent and persistent hot flashes during menopause can majorly raise women’s risk of clinical CVD events in the following 20 years, researchers reported at the 30th Annual Meeting of the North American Menopause Society.

1 in 4 MI survivors confused about the role of aspirin in secondary prevention

Twenty-six percent of heart attack survivors are confused about the role aspirin plays in secondary MI prevention, according to a recent survey from Bayer—a phenomenon that can be attributed in large part to an onslaught of conflicting headlines in the news this summer.

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Quicker diagnosis protocol for suspected ACS fails to improve outcomes

Discharging patients with suspected acute coronary syndrome (ACS) under a 0- and 1-hour high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T protocol is helpful for clearing waiting rooms, according to work presented at the ESC Congress Sept. 3.

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Napping twice a week lowers risk of CVD

Taking a nap once or twice a week—regardless of how long those naps are—can lower a person’s risk of incident heart disease, researchers report in the latest issue of BMJ Heart.

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‘We’re moving in the wrong direction’: Why younger people are having more heart attacks

Despite a decades-long decline in the rate of heart attacks among older people in the U.S., younger men in their twenties and thirties are presenting more often with MI, Men’s Health reports.

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18 years later: What 9/11 meant for firefighters’ heart health

New York City firefighters exposed to dust and debris from the World Trade Center attacks on and after Sept. 11, 2001, are far more likely to experience an adverse cardiovascular event in the long-term, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open Sept. 6.