http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. The aorta, the body's largest artery, stretches from the chest to below the kidneys, expanding and contracting with the pressure of blood driven directly into it by the heart. Although its walls are extraordinarily strong, like other blood vessels the aorta can sometimes develop bulges, called aneurysms. Like other aneurysms, those in the aorta sometimes give way, and the result is what doctors refer to as an "aortic dissection" - a clinical way of saying that the largest artery in your body has just started leaking, and you may well be on your way to becoming one of the nearly 16,000 Americans killed by the phenomenon annually. http://www.physorg.com/news177619107.html Medicine & Health Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:10:01 EST news177619107 Patients who received the less-invasive endovascular repair of an abdominal aortic aneurysm had a lower risk of death in the first 30 days after the procedure compared to patients who an open repair, but both procedures had similar rates of death after two years, according to a study in the October 14 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on surgical care. http://www.physorg.com/news174661874.html Medicine & Health Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:50:02 EST news174661874 Research presented at the 21st annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) scientific symposium, sponsored by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation (CRF), demonstrated an "exceptionally low" rate of complications one year after implantation of transcatheter aortic valve prostheses. http://www.physorg.com/news172761836.html Medicine & Health Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:40:14 EST news172761836 Technically speaking, an aneurysm is a dilation, or an enlargement, of a blood vessel to at least 50 percent beyond its normal diameter. So if a blood vessel is normally one inch wide, it is considered an aneurysm when it is greater than 1.5 inches wide. While finding out that you have an aneurysm can be concerning, the good news is that we continue to learn more about how aneurysms behave, which can help us determine if and when an aneurysm should be repaired, and the really good news is that we are continually developing new and less invasive ways to treat them. http://www.physorg.com/news171728197.html Medicine & Health Wed, 09 Sep 2009 15:40:02 EST news171728197 "Today, transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) represents an effective therapeutic alternative to conventional aortic valve replacement for patients who are at high risk or with contraindications to surgery, and the combination of the transfemoral and transapical approaches further increases the number of patients who can be treated," said Prof Dominique HIMBERT from the Bichat Hospital in Paris France, at a press conference at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Barcelona. http://www.physorg.com/news170947428.html Medicine & Health Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:24:42 EST news170947428 (PhysOrg.com) -- Research by a group of Montreal scientists calls into question one of the most basic assumptions of human genetics: that when it comes to DNA, every cell in the body is essentially identical to every other cell. Their results appear in the July issue of the journal Human Mutation. http://www.physorg.com/news166882585.html Medicine & Health Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:30:01 EST news166882585 Long-term survival for patients undergoing surgical repair of intact abdominal aortic aneurysms has improved in recent decades, according to a Swedish study reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. http://www.physorg.com/news166117216.html Medicine & Health Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:50:01 EST news166117216 Pig heart valves used to replace defective aortic valves in human patients failed much earlier and more often than expected, says a report from cardiac surgeons at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. This is the first report to demonstrate this potential problem, the researchers say. http://www.physorg.com/news165506043.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Jun 2009 14:54:26 EST news165506043 Recently the use of laparoscopy for vascular procedures has been limited by difficulties in aortic exposure and anastomosis techniques, as well as the concurrent competitive progress of endovascular surgery. For aortic repair, best results (in terms of long-term patency) have been obtained by conventional surgery which has been associated short-term morbidity and mortality. http://www.physorg.com/news164081566.html Medicine & Health Sat, 13 Jun 2009 06:40:02 EST news164081566 Removing a single protein prevents early damage in blood vessels from triggering a later-stage, frequently lethal complication of atherosclerosis, according to research published online today in the journal Nature Medicine. By eliminating the gene for a signaling protein called cyclophilin A (CypA) from a strain of mice, researchers were able to provide complete protection against abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). http://www.physorg.com/news161183060.html Medicine & Health Sun, 10 May 2009 14:04:59 EST news161183060 For the first time, scientists have discovered a single gene defect that causes thoracic aortic aneurysms and dissections as well as early onset coronary artery disease, ischemic stroke and Moyamoya disease. The research is led by scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. http://www.physorg.com/news160405578.html Medicine & Health Fri, 01 May 2009 14:07:00 EST news160405578 When 91-year-old Irvin Lafferty was diagnosed with severe blockage of his heart valve -hardening that is formally known as aortic valve stenosis -open-heart surgery was out of the question. He'd already survived quadruple bypass while in his 50s, and having lived almost a century, Lafferty wasn't a good candidate for heart surgery for many reasons. His local cardiologist referred him to surgical and interventional specialists at Chicago's Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute of Northwestern Memorial Hospital. And, on January 21, 2009, Lafferty became the first patient in Illinois to receive a prosthetic heart valve through a procedure known as transapical transcatheter aortic valve implantation, which combines catheterization technology and traditional surgery, allowing doctors to implant a new heart valve in place of Lafferty's diseased valve while his heart remained beating. http://www.physorg.com/news153500291.html Medicine & Health Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:58:44 EST news153500291 A blunt traumatic injury to the aorta, the body's main artery, is one of the leading causes of death following a vehicle crash. If it is not treated rapidly, the patient is at serious risk for artery rupture, which is nearly always fatal. Surgeons from the University of Maryland Medical Center have evaluated various treatments for this type of traumatic aortic injury, including a newer, less invasive procedure that enables them to fix the artery without making an incision. Their review appears in the October 16, 2008 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. http://www.physorg.com/news143307576.html Medicine & Health Wed, 15 Oct 2008 16:39:36 EST news143307576 Young adults with a bicuspid aortic valve, a congenital heart abnormality, experience subsequent cardiac events but do not appear to have lower survival rates compared to the general population, according to a study in the September 17 issue of JAMA. http://www.physorg.com/news140802018.html Medicine & Health Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:40:18 EST news140802018 An estimated 60,000 Americans are walking around with time bombs in their chests called thoracic aortic aneurysms. At any time, their main chest artery could suddenly burst open, causing massive internal bleeding that is almost always fatal. http://www.physorg.com/news139045411.html Medicine & Health Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:43:31 EST news139045411 Plant sterols have been touted as an effective way to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease. However, a research study in the July JLR has uncovered that these compounds do have their own risks, as they can accumulate in heart valves and lead to stenosis. http://www.physorg.com/news135273390.html Medicine & Health Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:56:30 EST news135273390 University of Pittsburgh-led researchers could provide new insight into how two common congenital circulatory problems -aortic arch deformity and arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) -develop in humans, as reported in the June 15 edition of Developmental Biology. http://www.physorg.com/news134756095.html Biology Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:14:55 EST news134756095