Heart

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The heart is a muscular organ in all vertebrates responsible for pumping blood through the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions, or a similar structure in annelids, mollusks, and arthropods. The term cardiac (as in cardiology) means "related to the heart" and comes from the Greek καρδιά, kardia, for "heart."

The heart of a vertebrate is composed of cardiac muscle, an involuntary striated muscle tissue which is found only within this organ. The average human heart, beating at 72 beats per minute, will beat approximately 2.5 billion times during a lifetime (about 66 years). It weighs on average 250 g to 300 g in females and 300 g to 350 g in males.

For more information about Heart, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with heart

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High blood pressure easy to miss in children with kidney disease

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created 10 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Spot blood pressure readings in children with chronic kidney disease often fail to detect hypertension - even during doctor's office visits — increasing a child's risk for serious heart problems, according to research from ...


Carvedilol shown to have unique characteristics among beta blockers

Medicine & Health / Medications

created 16 hours ago | popularity 4 / 5 (2) | comments 0

In a new study, researchers report that a class of heart medications called beta-blockers can have a helpful, or harmful, effect on the heart, depending on their molecular activity.


Saving the single cysteine: new antioxidant system found (w/ Video)

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- We've all read studies about the health benefits of having a life partner. The same thing is true at the molecular level, where amino acids known as cysteines are much more vulnerable to damage when single ...


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Alcohol helps lower heart disease risk for men: study

Medicine & Health / Health

created Nov 19, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (6) | comments 7

Men who drink alcohol every day see a nearly one-third average reduction in the risk of coronary heart disease, according to a long-term study among Spanish men published on Thursday.


Study: CT scans rule out heart attacks faster

Medicine & Health / Other

created Nov 18, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(AP) -- A new study suggests that a type of "super X-ray" can give a faster, cheaper way to tell whether a chest pain sufferer is really having a heart attack.


Drug for erectile dysfunction improves heart function in young heart-disease patients

Medicine & Health / Research

created Nov 18, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Heart function significantly improved in children and young adults with single-ventricle congenital heart disease who have had the Fontan operation following treatment with sildenafil, a drug used to treat erectile dysfunction ...


Hospital report cards do not appear to result in significant improvements

Medicine & Health / Other

created Nov 18, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

An analysis of quality of cardiac care following the public release of data on measures of care at hospitals in Ontario, Canada, did not result in significant systemwide improvement in hospitals' performance on most quality ...


Study finds link between preeclampsia and reduced thyroid function

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Nov 18, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Women who experience preeclampsia, a serious complication of pregnancy, may have an increased risk for reduced thyroid functioning later in life, report a team of researchers from the National Institutes of Health and other ...


Heart failure patients with kidney dysfunction don't recover well after hospital discharge

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Nov 18, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Most heart failure patients who develop kidney failure in the hospital do not recover from it before going home and are at increased risk of either being re-hospitalized or dying within the year, according to a Henry Ford ...


Family partnership, education interventions lower heart failure patients' salt consumption

Medicine & Health / Health

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Educating family members of heart failure (HF) patients about the health benefits of consuming a low-salt diet and providing skills for support and communication can effectively reduce HF patients' sodium consumption, according ...


Treatment with folic acid, vitamin B12 associated with increased risk of cancer, death

Medicine & Health / Research

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Patients with heart disease in Norway, a country with no fortification of foods with folic acid, had an associated increased risk of cancer and death from any cause if they had received treatment with folic acid and vitamin ...


Prevalence of high LDL, or 'bad' cholesterol levels decreases in US

Medicine & Health / Health

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Between 1999 and 2006, the prevalence of adults in the U.S. with high levels of LDL cholesterol, the "bad" cholesterol, decreased by about one-third, according to a study in the November 18 issue of JAMA. But a high percen ...


Your own stem cells can treat heart disease

Medicine & Health / Research

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 0

The largest national stem cell study for heart disease showed the first evidence that transplanting a potent form of adult stem cells into the heart muscle of subjects with severe angina results in less pain and an improved ...


New Test May Predict Heart Disease Events and the Effect of Weight Loss on Insulin Resistance

Medicine & Health / Research

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Chemical fingerprints produced by the body's normal metabolic processes predict who will suffer cardiovascular events and who will benefit from weight loss by reduction of insulin resistance, according two ...


Fungi May Hold Key to Reducing Grapefruit Juice Interactions with Medications

Fungi May Hold Key to Reducing Grapefruit Juice Interactions with Medications

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Nov 17, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- A fungus may help solve a problem of a grapefruit compound that interacts negatively with certain prescription drugs, according to studies by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists.