Updated website for health care professionals: My.AmericanHeart.org

The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association are pleased to unveil the brand new website for the science and research professional: my.americanheart.org.

This new website is an enhanced version of the my.americanheart.org you're used to, now with quicker and easier access to the professional tools and resources you require.

Some of the notable differences include:

• Improved site content and navigation
• Access to all AHA/ASA professional resources in a single location
• An entire website section dedicated to Science News
• Easily accessible archives of all daily and conference science news
• Increased multi-media content & enhanced video technology
• Access to select content on mobile devices
• Clean design and site layout

Visit the new My.AmericanHeart.org

Panasonic unveils the CardioHealth® Station @AHAScience

PANASONIC UNVEILS CARDIOHEALTH® STATION AT AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION 2010

Chicago, IL (November 14, 2010) – Panasonic announced today that the company will showcase its new innovative tool for personalized preventive medicine, the CardioHealth® Station, at booth number 1831 at the 2010 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions to be held in Chicago from November 14 – November 17. The CardioHealth® Station, Panasonic’s flagship healthcare product, will be on display and demonstrated on the show floor. The CardioHealth® Station is designed to assist medical professionals in making a quick and valuable assessment of cardiovascular health and is expected to launch in North America pending FDA action.

The CardioHealth® Station has a built-in portable ultrasound system optimized to perform a non-invasive examination of the carotid arteries. It provides an automated real-time measurement of the intima-media thickness (IMT) and allows the user to search for arterial plaques. Moreover, the touch-screen keyboard allows the user to input various parameters related to traditional cardiovascular risk factors. A built in calculator provides risk scores commonly used in a variety of medical environments (Framingham Risk Score, PROCAM Health Check Score, Reynolds Risk Score, Risk score based on the SCORE Project). This information is supplemented with an IMT measurement of the artery to generate a comprehensive report to aid the physician in assessing cardiovascular risk.

New 2010 CPR guidelines from the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association has updated its CPR guidelines. Now, CPR is C-A-B instead of A-B-C. The focus is on circulation, followed by airway and breathing. This way, there is no reason to delay before you start giving chest compressions. Overall, the 2010 guidelines are simpler. The Adult BLS Algorithm is very simple compared to previous diagrams. The 2010 guidelines also "strongly recommend" that 911 dispatchers guide people through "compression-only" CPR. Speaking of chest compressions, the new guidelines continue to emphasize the need for high quality chest compressions and it changes the compression rate from "approximately" 100/min to "at least" 100/min. Let's hope this doesn't cause people to compress too quickly.

I haven't performed CPR in a very long time. In fact, I've only performed it in the hospital setting. It's good to see that the AHA is updating these guidelines and simplifying them. 

The risks of daily aspirin may outweigh the benefits

According to this story on CNN (which is a summary of a report published in Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin), the risks associated with taking a daily aspirin for primary cardiovascular prevention may outweigh the benefits. The major risks include gastrointestinal bleeding (bleeding in the gut) or hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding around the brain).

I'm very curious to see how the American Diabetes Association (ADA and the American Heart Association (AHA) respond to this new study.

What if we're not using the proper methods to risk stratify patients? Those who have diabetes are considered to be at "high risk" automatically because they're considered to have a coronary heart disease "risk equivalent" based on the ATP III or Third Report of the Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults (Adult Treatment Panel III).

Before you make any changes to your medications, discuss this issue with your health care provider.