Heart Patients Benefit From At-Home Care, Study Finds

(HealthDay News) -- Patients with worsening chronic heart failure may find "hospital-at-home" care is a good alternative to treatment in a traditional hospital, Italian researchers report.

An estimated 5 million North Americans suffer from chronic heart failure, a condition in which the heart struggles to pump blood to the body. In the United States, worsening chronic heart failure is the cause of more than 1 million hospital admissions a year, and patients have a 50 percent risk of readmission within six months of discharge, according to the authors of a study published in the Sept. 28 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

But the hospital is often dangerous in itself, the study authors noted. Read more...

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Some Elderly Heart Failure Patients Get Little Help From Meds, Study Finds

(HealthDay News) -- Elderly people suffering from a type of heart disease called diastolic heart failure do not seem to benefit from the commonly prescribed heart failure drugs, researchers from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles report.

As the population in the United States ages, more elderly people are being treated for heart failure. But even though they make up the majority of those treated for the disease, little is known about the effectiveness of treatment, researchers say.

"We really don't have many data on heart failure patients above the age of 80," said lead researcher Dr. Ernst R. Schwarz, medical director of the Cardiac Support Program and co-director of the Heart Transplant Program at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute.

In their study, the researchers looked at elderly people with diastolic dysfunction. In this condition, the systolic function of the heart is normal. "That means their pump function is normal, but their relaxation is impaired," Schwarz explained. Read more...

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Circumcision Helps Cut HPV Transmission Rate, Study Finds

(HealthDay News) -- Among HIV-negative sexual partners, male circumcision helps prevent the transmission of human papillomavirus from men to women, according to a new study.

However, circumcision offers only partial protection and partners must still practice safe sex, the researchers pointed out.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a sexually transmitted infection that puts women at risk for cervical cancer. Previous research has shown that circumcision reduces the risk of HPV infection in men.

In this new study, researchers analyzed data from two clinical trials in Uganda that followed HIV-negative men and their HIV-negative female partners between 2003 and 2006. The incidence of new high-risk HPV infection was 23 percent lower for women with circumcised partners than for those with uncircumcised partners, the investigators found. Read more...

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