Scientists have identified a key molecular regulator of cardiac hypertrophy (enlargement of the heart) that may provide a therapeutic target for a major risk factor of heart failure and early death.

Commerce select committee chairwoman Lianne Dalziel has welcomed a Government change of heart on a controversial amendment to the Patents Bill.

Chicago Tribune: “In a move likely to shake up the market for heart care in the Chicago area, the Cleveland Clinic’s cardiac surgery program has signed an affiliation agreement with Central DuPage Hospital in west suburban Winfield. The deal, announced Thursday, is designed to enhance the heart care provided at the 313-bed hospital and potentially bring Cleveland Clinic patient referrals at a time when fewer heart surgeries are needed than were a decade ago.

Among patients with heart disease, anxiety disorders appear to be associated with a higher risk of stroke, heart attack, heart failure and death, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has come up with results of their study funded by the National Heart Foundation that warns Australian women of their heart disease risk. It says that heart disease is the leading killer of Australian women and most women (eight out of ten) think that heart disease kills only ‘

A trial on shunts used to direct blood flow to the lungs, led by researchers at the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, will lead to better outcomes for kids worldwide born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, the most common severe heart birth defect.

According to a new study researchers have warned that at least one in five Australians over the age of 55 have a 30 percent chance of suffering a potentially fatal heart attack or stroke in the next five years.

A recent study raises questions about the frequency of doctors’ use of elective heart angiograms, which showed no disease in almost 40 percent of patients. BusinessWeek reports: “Doctors may be sending patients too quickly for elective angiograms to detect heart disease, exposing them to radiation and driving up U.S. health-care costs, a study suggests.

Women are substantially underrepresented in clinical trials used to formulate women’s guidelines and are affected more than men by low social support after a heart attack, according to two studies in the women-themed issue of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, a journal of the American Heart Association.

The Conference Board of Canada, the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society will hold a press conference on Monday, February 8 to announce the findings of the report, The Canadian Heart Health Strategy: Risk Factors and Future Cost Implications.