Culture

As Canada's population continues to age it could lead to skyrocketing health care costs and doctor shortages - but that concern may be greatly exaggerated, according to two studies by researchers from the University of British Columbia.

The research, by health economists at UBC's Centre for Health Services and Policy Research (CHSPR) in Healthcare Policy pointed to other factors that are driving up costs: greater use of specialists, more diagnostic tests for the elderly, and increased consumption of increasingly expensive drugs.

In Jerusalem and Judah, ancient limestone burial boxes called ossuaries are fairly common archaeological finds, even from as far back as the 1st century B.C.

Since there is money in antiquities, forgers have also added inscriptions or decorations to fraudulently try and increase their value so when the Israel Antiquities Authority confiscated an ossuary with a rare inscription from antiquities looters three years ago, they turned to Prof. Yuval Goren of Tel Aviv University's Department of Archaeology to authenticate it.

Experts agree that financial constraints and an aging population will require America to modify its Social Security system, but some also find that pushing back the eligibility age could be a major concern for those who rely on the program the most. The consequences — both positive and negative — of making the country's seniors wait to start claiming benefits are presented in the latest installment of the Public Policy & Report (PPAR) from the National Academy on an Aging Society, the policy institute of The Gerontological Society of America (GSA).

Results from the STOP-VT Study (Study to Obliterate Persistent Ventricular Tachycardia) were presented at the ESC Congress 2011 today. This is the first ever multi-center, global, prospective trial to evaluate a Remote Magnetic Navigation (RMN) system 1 for the treatment of ischemic Ventricular Tachycardia. The multi-center study was conducted at Na Holmoce Hospital (Prague), Hospital of University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, USA), Methodist Hospital (Indianapolis, USA), and Herzentrum Leipzig GmbH (Germany).

A Swedish study presented at the ESC Congress 2011 today, found a higher incidence of arrhythmias in cross-country skiers with a long history of endurance training. Compared to those who had completed one single race, those who had completed 7 or more races had 29% higher risk of a subsequent arrhythmia. Further, elite athletes finishing at 100-160% of the winning time had 37% higher risk of arrhythmias than recreational athletes finishing at more than 241% of the winning time.

There is a growing awareness that psychological factors play a major role in triggering and modulating the progression of ischemic heart disease. Negative emotions such as hostility, anger, depression, anxiety and social isolation are cardio-toxic, whereas positive feelings characterized by imagination, empathy, and spiritual interests are cardio-protective.

Results of an observational study presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) meeting today in Paris demonstrate that the percutaneous catheter-based MitraClip treatment improves symptoms and promotes reverse left ventricular (LV) remodeling in patients with mitral regurgitation (MR), who do not respond to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT).

A study presented today at the ESC Congress 2011 by Finnish researchers, showed that high job demands coupled with low job control to meet these demands, refer to a "high strain job" – a situation which is a risk for heart health and even mortality [1, 2]. Also, working long hours is detrimental to health and is associated with decreased cognitive function, higher heart disease and mortality e.g. [3, 4]. Japanese even have a word for this condition: 'karoshi' means death from overwork.

A Norwegian survey carried out between 1974 and 2003 showed that there was a graded independent increase in the risk of AF with increasing levels of physical activity in a population-based study among men with ostensibly no other heart disease. In women the data were inconclusive.

The Homburg Cream and Sugar (HCS) study was designed to determine whether the measurement of postprandial triglyceride in addition to the assessment of glucose tolerance and traditional risk factors might improve the prediction of cardiovascular events.

There is great under-use of proven therapies for the secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease, according to results presented today from the PURE (Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiological) study.

"The study indicates a large gap in secondary prevention globally," said Dr Salim Yusuf, lead author and Executive Director of the Population Health Research Institute at McMaster University, Canada. "We found extremely low rates of use of proven therapies in all countries, but these were more marked in middle and low income countries."

A large-scale trial finds that apixaban, a new anticoagulant drug, is superior to the standard drug warfarin for preventing stroke and systemic embolism in patients with atrial fibrillation. Moreover, apixaban results in substantially less bleeding, and also results in lower mortality. The benefits of apixaban are consistent irrespective of how well warfarin is used at different centers, as measure by "time in therapeutic range."

Colchicine, when given in addition to conventional therapy, was more effective than placebo in reducing the incidence of recurrence and the persistence of symptoms of pericarditis in a randomised controlled trial. This is the first time that the efficacy of colchicine in preventing recurrent episodes of pericarditis has been demonstrated in a double-blind multicentre randomised trial.

Recently, interest in the fat around the heart -so called pericardial fat- is rapidly growing. Even a thin person can have pericardial fat. Several studies suggest that pericardial fat induces inflammation of the artery wall by secretion of pro-inflammatory proteins and plays a role in the pathogenesis of coronary artery disease. However, there is no information regarding the impact of pericardial fat on coronary arterial remodeling and plaque vulnerability- related with acute coronary syndrome.

Researchers from the Heart Research Centre in Melbourne, Australia, have demonstrated the benefits of the 8-week 'Beating Heart Problems' group programme in a randomised controlled trial. According to Principal Research Fellow at the Centre, Dr Barbara Murphy, depressed participants appear to have benefited from the contact with their non-depressed peers: "In groups for depressed patients, progress can be slow. With our programme, which involved depressed and non-depressed patients in a group together, we saw that the depressed patients improved dramatically.