Medical Struggle Against Heart Disease Continues
November 14, 2005 – 11:57 pmTwo long awaited studies of the effectiveness of a pair of new heart medications were presented on Monday at an American Heart Association meeting. The medial community was on edge, hoping for good news, but the results were mixed. While neither new drug was shown to reduce death rates, the quality of life of diabetics and of critically ill patients seemed to improve.
One of the new drugs was TriCor, and it was designed to help diabetic patients suffering from heart disease. While death rates did not decline, patients taking the new drug were less likely to need angioplasties or bypass surgeries and were also less likely to go blind or require an amputation. The lead researcher noted that TriCor could help prevent blood vessel damage that increases the risk of heart disease amongst diabetics.
The second drug studied was Simdax, which was designed to stabilize patients suffering from end-stage heart failure. It does perform better than “standard” techniques in achieving such stabilization, but no effect on death rate was proven.
The medical community is looking for additional tools to complement their existing arsenal of cholesterol reducing drugs known as statins, such as Lipitor and Zocor. While these drugs are effective, they do not attack all forms of heart disease. It looks like another large study is already in the works and is slated to end in 2009.
And as long as heart disease remains the number one killer of those in the developed world, much time and energy will continue to be devoted to these much needed endeavors.
2 Responses to “Medical Struggle Against Heart Disease Continues”
I find the combination of this post here and Mike’s Post going up at the same time rather amusing.
On a more serious note, the most effective way for us to combat heart disease is to change our way of life. Granted, that wouldn’t eliminate the problem, but it would save a lot of time, money, and lives. Sitting around and waiting for drugs to come out to fix problems isn’t the way to go.
And, bringing it back down again, I’d like to point out this really awesome heart model that my brother has been developing for the last five years as his PhD project: check out the movies in particular here.
By Adam on Nov 15, 2005 at 4:14 pm
The timing is a bit funny.
But yes, you’re absolutely right that people need to take charge of their own health and implement healthy diets and exercise routines to prevent this disease from taking over.
Your brother’s research looks awesome. I didn’t know he was using the immersed boundary method. I have come across that subject quite a few times in my own research.
In fact, from reading a little bit of his thesis, it looks like he and I use similar frameworks for our adaptive mesh refinement algorithms and parallel computation implementation. Interesting stuff.
By jjk on Nov 15, 2005 at 6:15 pm