heart attack victims

A chemical found in bear bile - used in many traditional Chinese medicines - could help heart attack victims, new research suggests.

Heart attack patients who had an ordinary blood-pressure cuff applied to their arms by paramedics suffered significantly less damage to their heart muscles in a randomized trial than heart attack victims who got standard care.

(Wiley-Blackwell) A recent study found that individuals experiencing chest pain who had electrocardiogram assessments prior to arriving at the hospital experienced a significantly reduced time-to-treatment or door-to-balloon (D2B) time.

The mean D2B time was 60.2 minutes compared with 90.5 minutes for in-hospital ECGs. Details of the study appear in the January 2010 issue of Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions, published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions.

A federal investigation has found problems with a controversial study of an alternative medicine treatment for heart attack victims....