Recognizing Female Heart Attack Symptoms July 30, 2009
Posted by infomercialmarketing in Heart Attack Signs.1 comment so far
Her Guide to a Heart Attack: Recognizing Female Heart Attack Symptoms
By Katherine Kam
WebMD Feature
Reviewed by Michael W. Smith, MD
On a Monday morning in April, Merle Rose, a New Jersey woman, experienced what some doctors call “female heart attack symptoms;” a feeling of indigestion and extreme fatigue. Later, she had nausea, vomiting and fainting.
But she never had chest pain-a “typical” male heart attack sign. When she got to the emergency room, doctors couldn’t find any sign of heart attack and Rose says, “They would have sent me home.”
As Rose’s experience shows, many doctors-and women themselves–still don’t realize that female heart attack symptoms can look very different than those of men. In fact, according to a study of women’s early heart attack signs published in Circulation, women have more unrecognized heart attacks than men and are more likely to be, “mistakenly diagnosed and discharged from emergency departments.”
In the emergency room, physicians had assumed she had a gastrointestinal illness. But at the time, no one told Rose that she had suffered a heart attack.
When an outside cardiologist recommended by Rose’s regular doctor ordered testing that uncovered major blockages, doctors still made no mention of heart attack, she says.
So when did she finally get word? Not until several months later, when she visited a new female cardiologist. This doctor told her in retrospect that she had suffered a textbook case of undiagnosed female heart attack.
“That’s the first I ever heard,” Rose says. “This doctor told me, ‘They didn’t connect the dots.’”
Female Heart Attack Symptoms: What are They?
These chest-related heart attack signs often appear in men, and many women get them, too:
* Pressure, fullness or a squeezing pain in the center of the chest, which may spread to the neck, shoulder or jaw;
* Chest discomfort with lightheadedness, fainting, sweating, nausea or shortness of breath;
But many women don’t have chest pain. In the Circulation study on early female heart attack symptoms, researchers found that during a heart attack, 43% of the 515 women studied had no “acute chest pain… a ‘hallmark symptom in men,’” according to study authors.
Nevertheless, the study cited evidence that many emergency room doctors still look mainly for chest pain. Only a minority check for the other types of symptoms that women tend to develop. As a result, doctors may miss heart attacks in women.
“Although women can have chest tightness as a symptom of a heart attack, it’s also important for women to recognize that might not be their symptom,” says Nieca Goldberg, MD, a cardiologist and chief of Women’s Cardiac Care at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City and author of “The Women’s Healthy Heart Program.”
“Women commonly have symptoms of shortness of breath, unexplained fatigue, or pressure in the lower chest, so they easily mistake it as a stomach ailment.”
Heart Attack Signs July 30, 2009
Posted by infomercialmarketing in Heart Attack Signs.1 comment so far
Muscles in the heart require a continual reserve of oxygen-rich blood. The coronary arteries provide the heart with this vital supply. If you have a form of heart disease, the blood can not flow as well as it should. Fatty matter, calcium, proteins and inflammatory cells build up within the arteries to form plaques of different sizes.
When A Visually Creative Site Is Just Not Good Enough July 28, 2009
Posted by infomercialmarketing in Internet Marketing, Web Design.2 comments
Having a user-friendly interface can hold your visitors interest for longer periods of time. Aside from music, flash animation, scrolling banners and flashy text, you must have a site that is easy for the consumer to use. In most cases, it can be the most important element to your site.
The creative side to your site is important. The image you set on your site is how you want the viewer to perceive your product or service. However, it should not be the only factor when choosing a Boston web design company. Who ever you decide to work with should know that having a consumer friendly site is how you keep the customers interest. Good design can be a key element to keeping your competition in second place. Working with a good Boston web design company can mean the difference in having a great site that is fit for your specific company and a site that is fit for an entirely different product. Some companies have great sites…just not for their business needs. A good firm who has experience in a variety of sites can find the right fit for your product or service.
If you have a visually elaborate site that has ground breaking graphics and elaborate images, you may fail in capturing the customer even if they feel the site is beautiful and captivating. If you cant reach a product because there is a flash animation, what good is the site to you? The reality is, its not of use to you. This causes the store to lose a sale and you to become frustrated and not visit the online store again. Today, companies need to have the option for customers to chose. In any event, this is an example of how a good site would have allowed the customer to make a purchase and a bad site did not complete the sale. This is the main reason when choosing a Boston web design firm you must do your research to ensure the best site for your business.
First Use in a Patient of The InfraReDx LipiScan? Coronary Imaging System July 14, 2009
Posted by infomercialmarketing in Signs Of A Heart Attack.3 comments
Understanding heart attack causes :
May 15, 2008InfraReDx, Inc. today announced that physicians at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., have successfully used its LipiScan™ Coronary Imaging System in a patient undergoing a cardiac catheterization. This is the first patient in the world in whom it has been possible to assess the chemical composition of coronary artery plaques and utilize such information to assist in the management of coronary artery disease.
Dr. Daniel Schultz, Director of the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health, has stated, “This is the first device that can help assess the chemical make-up of coronary artery plaques and help physicians identify those plaques with lipid cores, which may be of particular concern.”
Physicians at Beaumont Hospital performed the procedure on May 8, 2008 in a 70-year old male patient. The LipiScan System revealed the presence of a lipid core containing plaque not detectable by conventional diagnostic measures. This fatty plaque was located near a narrowing that required a coronary stent for the usual reasons. Because of the presence of this plaque, the physicians selected a stent that was 50 percent longer than the one that would have been used to cover the narrowing only. This longer stent covered the lipid core containing plaque and avoided placing the end of a shorter stent in the fatty plaque. Termination of a stent in a fatty plaque has been associated with clotting of the stent years after placement.
“If doctors can identify these fatty plaques, we can recommend better treatment options to patients,” says Simon Dixon, M.D., director of the cardiac catheterization laboratories and co-director of cardiac research at Beaumont, Royal Oak. “This information tells us immediately what length of stent (tiny mesh “scaffold” to hold an artery open) to use and where to place it in patients with severe narrowings. Based on further research, this novel device may help determine which type of stent – bare metal or drug-eluting — is best for the patient.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved The LipiScan Coronary Imaging System in late April.
First patient case to be presented at EuroPCR Conference this week
The results of the first use in patients of this system will be presented by Drs. Renu Virmani, M.D. and Gregg Stone, M.D. at the EuroPCR conference taking place this week in Barcelona, Spain from May 13-16, 2008.
About The LipiScan Coronary Imaging System
The LipiScan Coronary Imaging System is a catheter-based device that uses laser light to detect how much fat and other substances are contained in a plaque. The identification of the chemical composition of coronary plaques is expected to be of value to cardiologists in the selection of medical, stenting or surgical therapy for coronary lesions. The device is also expected to be of value to the pharmaceutical industry as a means to assess the effect of novel anti-atherosclerotic agents on lipid core plaque burden.
“The InfraReDx team is pleased that the LipiScan Coronary Imaging System has been validated in tissue samples and a clinical study and has been cleared by the FDA for use in patients. We understand the great potential of interventional cardiology and anticipate that this novel tool will assist physicians with the complex decisions they face in the management of patients with coronary artery disease,” says James E. Muller, M.D., cardiologist, co-founder, President and CEO of InfraReDx, Inc.
Dr. Muller noted that the creation of this novel device was greatly aided by the support and expertise of Sanderling Ventures of San Mateo, California. “Robert McNeil, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board of InfraReDx, and Timothy Mills, Ph.D., InfraReDx Board member are managing directors of Sanderling and both have extensive experience in medical device development,” said Dr. Muller. “Sanderling was a seed investor in Advanced Cardiovascular Systems, a company that pioneered development of balloon angioplasty and was acquired by Guidant. With the development of the LipiScan Coronary Imaging System, Sanderling is again contributing to a major step forward in providing a useful tool with which interventional cardiologists may improve the care of cardiac patients.”
“There is a real unmet medical need to identify lipid core containing plaques of interest in the coronary arteries, which before now we could not do,” says James Goldstein, M.D., an interventional cardiologist and consultant to InfraReDx. “The ability to detect lipid core containing plaques of interest may go a long way in providing information to help prevent heart attacks in the near future.”
Coronary artery disease, which causes heart attacks and chest pain, is the single leading cause of death in America, according to the web site for the American Heart Association. It accounts for one of every five deaths in America.
About InfraReDx, Inc.
InfraReDx, Inc. is a science-based medical device company with expertise in near-infrared spectroscopic (NIRS) technology and its application to coronary imaging. The company, located in Burlington, Mass., was founded in 1998 to meet the unmet medical need for detection and identification of lipid core containing plaques of interest in the coronary arteries. For more information, visit the InfraReDx website at www.infraredx.com.
The Status Of Development Of Novel Methods To Prevent Sudden Cardiac Death Due To Rupture Of Cholesterol Plaques July 13, 2009
Posted by infomercialmarketing in Symptoms Of A Heart Attack.add a comment
Uncovering hear attack signs :
June 16, 2008
James E. Muller, MD
CEO, InfraReDx Inc.
The sudden death of Tim Russert of NBC news is a public reminder of the many tragic deaths caused by coronary artery disease. Each year in the United States approximately 300,000 individuals die suddenly of coronary disease — over 800 others died of this disease on the same day that the nation lost its brilliant commentator and journalist.
The cause of death, in retrospect, is not mysterious. Dr. Michael Newman, the physician of Mr. Russert, has stated that the death was due to a heart attack. The heart attack in turn, was caused by a thrombus in the left anterior descending coronary artery, identified by an autopsy, that blocked the flow of blood to the heart muscle. Dr. Newman stated it is likely that the thrombus resulted from rupture of a plaque that was rich in cholesterol.
While hindsight provides a clear view, it was not possible with conventional medical tests to detect the problem in advance. Dr. Newman reported that Mr. Russert, who had a low HDL (good) cholesterol, and was known to have some degree of coronary atherosclerosis, passed a stress test in April, 2008. The successful performance on a stress test indicates that Mr. Russert did not have fixed blockages in his artery.
Unfortunately the stress test was not able to identify a dangerous plaque hidden in the wall of the artery. As reported by Dr. Newman it is highly likely that a cholesterol plaque not detectable by conventional tests was present in the artery. Even coronary angiography, in which blood flow through the vessels is directly visualized, would not have been able to find such a non-obstructive plaque. Conventional therapy, which Mr. Russert was receiving, was not able to stabilize this plaque and prevent his death.
There are extensive efforts underway to develop new tools for the detection of cholesterol plaques, and new preventive therapies.
The first need is for a non-invasive screening tool to identify individuals in the high risk population (such as Mr. Russert) who are in need of more extensive testing. There have been major advances in the development of non-invasive multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT). These devices, which require the use of a contrast agent and exposure to radiation, can now deliver excellent pictures of both the lumen and the wall of the coronary artery. MRI has also shown promise. It is likely that non-invasive devices will be able to identify vulnerable patients with a high probability of having a lipid-rich cholesterol plaque.
The second need is for a more precise technology that can confirm preliminary non-invasive findings that a cholesterol plaque is indeed present. Intracoronary catheters utilizing ultrasound, spectroscopic and optical measurement techniques have been developed for this purpose. Studies are in progress to determine if the signs of a cholesterol plaque detected by the non-invasive measures can be confirmed by these more precise invasive measures.
The third need is for more effective preventive therapy. While it is not reported what medications Mr. Russert was receiving, it is likely that this event occurred despite the use of statin therapy, aspirin, and anti-hypertensive medications. Research is being conducted on novel pharmacologic agents and the development of stents that might have a favorable risk-benefit ratio for stenting of cholesterol rich vulnerable plaques.
While three building blocks of a potentially more effective preventive strategy are already in clinical use –MSCT, intravascular diagnostic methods and stents – the approaches are not individually validated for primary prevention of sudden death. Nor is their use together in a screen, confirm and treat strategy tested.
The unfortunate loss of one of our leading national figures has occurred before a more effective preventive strategy could be developed, but an improved preventive therapy for our leading cause of death may not be far from realization. The loss of Tim Russert, plus the continuing deaths of so many others, supports the need for accelerated efforts to test these novel individual approaches and their combined use in a comprehensive strategy for prevention of sudden coronary death.
June 16 2008
Boston Search Engine Optimizers July 1, 2009
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Are you in the market to improve your search engine optimization Boston companies? If you aren’t, you should be! It is a crucial and necessary step to keep your business ahead and competitive. Many people dont know the ins and outs of optimizing their site, and some don’t recognize its necessity. Today, no matter what your business, being found on-line is a significant requirement to finding new customers.
