A new drug reduces heart damage

Public release date: 10-Mar-2013
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Contact: William Raillant-Clark
w.raillant-clark@umontreal.ca
514-343-7593
University of Montreal

Study on treatment for heart attack patients led by the Montreal Heart Institute

This press release is available in French.

A single dose of an investigational anti-inflammatory drug called inclacumab considerably reduces damage to heart muscle during angioplasty (the opening of a blocked artery), according to a recent international clinical trial spearheaded by Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif, Director of the Research Centre at the Montreal Heart Institute, affiliated with the University of Montreal. Presented today in San Francisco at the prestigious American cardiology conference, these findings show great promise.

"Inclacumab could indeed become an integral part of the therapeutic arsenal of modern cardiology if we can reproduce these results in subsequent studies. We could use the drug for a broader patient population, or for all patients who present with a heart attack, but this will require further study," explained Dr. Tardif, lead investigator of the study and also professor of Medicine at the University of Montreal.

Reducing the risk of complications after angioplasty to treat heart attack

Each year, approximately 35,000 coronary artery angioplasty procedures are conducted in Canada and more than 1 million are conducted in the United States to treat atherosclerosis. This condition occurs when the arteries are obstructed with deposits of fat (cholesterol), calcium and cellular waste. Over time, the arteries lose their elasticity and narrow, which slows down or blocks blood flow. Because of the resulting complications (angina, heart attack, stroke, etc.), patients may ultimately need an angioplasty, which is a percutaneous intervention that dilates the narrowed artery to re-establish blood flow. However, heart tissue can become damaged during an angioplasty, and an inflammatory cascade can lead to other complications.

A single dose may provide benefits

For this clinical study, Dr. Tardif and his team compared the effects of a single dose of this new anti-inflammatory drug with placebo. Inclacumab is an antibody that blocks P-selectin, a molecule that drives inflammation and plays an important role in vascular disease.

To study the effects of the drug, Dr. Tardif and his team administered a single dose of inclacumab and then measured the subjects' levels of troponin I, which is a marker used clinically to diagnose heart attack. They found that inclacumab reduced troponin l levels by 24 %. "It is very exciting to discover that a single dose of inclacumab can provide benefits," stressed Dr. Tardif. The trial involved 530 patients with myocardial infarction whose median age was 61 and 78.9 % of whom were men. Patients were randomized to receive an infusion of inclacumab at 20 mg/kg, inclacumab at 5 mg/kg, or placebo 1 to 24 hours before angioplasty. Markers for heart damage were then measured at 8, 16 and 24 hours after angioplasty.

On Sunday March 10, Dr. Tardif will present the results of the SELECT-ACS, supported by Roche, or "Effects of the P-Selectin Antagonist Inclacumab in the Select-Acute Coronary Syndromes Trial" at the 62nd Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology. ACC.13 is the premier cardiovascular medical meeting in the United States that brings together cardiologists and cardiovascular specialists to further advances in cardiovascular medicine.

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The University of Montreal is officially known as Universit de Montral.

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Public release date: 10-Mar-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: William Raillant-Clark
w.raillant-clark@umontreal.ca
514-343-7593
University of Montreal

Study on treatment for heart attack patients led by the Montreal Heart Institute

This press release is available in French.

A single dose of an investigational anti-inflammatory drug called inclacumab considerably reduces damage to heart muscle during angioplasty (the opening of a blocked artery), according to a recent international clinical trial spearheaded by Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif, Director of the Research Centre at the Montreal Heart Institute, affiliated with the University of Montreal. Presented today in San Francisco at the prestigious American cardiology conference, these findings show great promise.

"Inclacumab could indeed become an integral part of the therapeutic arsenal of modern cardiology if we can reproduce these results in subsequent studies. We could use the drug for a broader patient population, or for all patients who present with a heart attack, but this will require further study," explained Dr. Tardif, lead investigator of the study and also professor of Medicine at the University of Montreal.

Reducing the risk of complications after angioplasty to treat heart attack

Each year, approximately 35,000 coronary artery angioplasty procedures are conducted in Canada and more than 1 million are conducted in the United States to treat atherosclerosis. This condition occurs when the arteries are obstructed with deposits of fat (cholesterol), calcium and cellular waste. Over time, the arteries lose their elasticity and narrow, which slows down or blocks blood flow. Because of the resulting complications (angina, heart attack, stroke, etc.), patients may ultimately need an angioplasty, which is a percutaneous intervention that dilates the narrowed artery to re-establish blood flow. However, heart tissue can become damaged during an angioplasty, and an inflammatory cascade can lead to other complications.

A single dose may provide benefits

For this clinical study, Dr. Tardif and his team compared the effects of a single dose of this new anti-inflammatory drug with placebo. Inclacumab is an antibody that blocks P-selectin, a molecule that drives inflammation and plays an important role in vascular disease.

To study the effects of the drug, Dr. Tardif and his team administered a single dose of inclacumab and then measured the subjects' levels of troponin I, which is a marker used clinically to diagnose heart attack. They found that inclacumab reduced troponin l levels by 24 %. "It is very exciting to discover that a single dose of inclacumab can provide benefits," stressed Dr. Tardif. The trial involved 530 patients with myocardial infarction whose median age was 61 and 78.9 % of whom were men. Patients were randomized to receive an infusion of inclacumab at 20 mg/kg, inclacumab at 5 mg/kg, or placebo 1 to 24 hours before angioplasty. Markers for heart damage were then measured at 8, 16 and 24 hours after angioplasty.

On Sunday March 10, Dr. Tardif will present the results of the SELECT-ACS, supported by Roche, or "Effects of the P-Selectin Antagonist Inclacumab in the Select-Acute Coronary Syndromes Trial" at the 62nd Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology. ACC.13 is the premier cardiovascular medical meeting in the United States that brings together cardiologists and cardiovascular specialists to further advances in cardiovascular medicine.

###

The University of Montreal is officially known as Universit de Montral.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/uom-an030113.php

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convalescent kart: Leading Mobile Content Aggregator 70TH ...

L-R: Executive Director, 70TH Precinct, Gbolahan Olwookere; Program Manager, Africa Division, Voice of America, Negussie Mengesha; MD/CEO, 70TH Precinct, Osamede Umweni and Director, Voice of America, David Ensor at the launch of VOA Mobile News Service in Abuja recently.

Voice of America has launched a new SMS news service that allows cell phone users to get up-to-date VOA news headlines and emergency messages through three of the country?s major mobile providers.

The agreement was signed at a news conference in Abuja, Nigeria presented by VOA Director David Ensor and Osamede Umweni, CEO of the mobile content aggregator, 70th Precinct Limited.

?SMS is one of the most popular forms of mobile communication in Nigeria,? Ensor said, ?and VOA is one of the most popular international broadcasters in the country.? By putting our Hausa language news updates out as SMS messages on mobile phones, we give our audience the news they want on a platform they like.? According to Osamede Umweni, ?The VOA service would be landmark one in the sense that it would be the first time a major news agency would deliver up to the minute news in Hausa language via the SMS format. The service would cater for over 21 million Hausa language listeners in Nigeria?

The SMS headline service has been undergoing tests in Nigeria for the past month.? The VOA regional and international headlines are now updated three times a day, seven days a week, and are available on mobile providers MTN, Airtel, and Etisalat. The Interactive Voice Response service (IVR) would also be launched in the next few weeks too. Here subscribers can listen to daily headline news on their mobile phone anywhere they are from a source that they can trust.

Stephen Ferri, the VOA Africa Division?s Senior Web Editor, says SMS is not only a popular way of communicating; it is one of the most reliable in an emergency.? ?When other communications systems break down, SMS will probably still work.? We have seen this in other countries where our audience expanded sharply in a crisis, because SMS was the only way to get news.?

Rob Bole, the Director of the Broadcasting Board of Governors? Office of Digital Design and Innovation, who is traveling with the VOA director, called mobile ?one of the most important new ways for international broadcasters to reach audiences.?? Bole is exploring ways to expand the use of mobile to reach African audiences across the range of platforms, from simple feature phones to high-bandwidth Internet-capable devices.

In addition to mobile service, VOA broadcasts to Nigeria on radio, television and the Internet. Many affiliate stations carry VOA Hausa language programs. Research conducted for the BBG shows that one in three Hausa language speakers listen to VOA radio at least once a week.

About the Author

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Source: http://www.mobileworldmag.com/leading-mobile-content-aggregator-70th-precinct-launches-voa-sms-news-service-in-nigeria.html

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Source: http://convalescent-kart.blogspot.com/2013/03/leading-mobile-content-aggregator-70th.html

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Store donated blood for more than 3 weeks? Say NO (nitric oxide)

Mar. 10, 2013 ? Transfusion of donated blood more than three weeks old results in impaired blood vessel function, a new study of hospital patients shows.

Blood banks now consider six weeks to be the maximum permitted storage time of blood for use in transfusion, but recent studies have suggested transfusing blood stored for more than a few weeks has adverse effects in patients undergoing cardiac surgery or critical care.

The new finding suggests a mechanism explaining why older blood might be detrimental to patient health: a deficiency in nitric oxide, a short-lived chemical messenger that relaxes blood vessels.

The results are being presented at the American College of Cardiology meeting in San Francisco. The presenter is cardiovascular research fellow Robert Neuman, MD. Senior authors include Arshed Quyyumi, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Emory Clinical Cardiovascular Research Institute, and John Roback, MD, PhD, associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and medical director of the Emory University Hospital blood bank.

In the current study, 43 patients at Emory University Hospital were set to receive cross-matched red blood cells for clinical indications. Members of the group were in hospital for various reasons, such as cancer treatment and surgery. They were randomly chosen to receive either fresh (less than ten days old) or aged (more than three weeks old) red blood cells. On average, they received the equivalent of two units. A unit is 450 milliliters of blood.

Neuman and his colleagues tested blood vessel function by measuring flow-mediated dilation (FMD). By ultrasound, they tested how much a blood vessel in the arm opens up after a blood pressure cuff is first tightened then removed. Flow-mediated dilation is an indicator of the health of the endothelial lining of the blood vessels and is a process that is dependent on nitric oxide.

Healthy, younger individuals can have flow-mediated dilation of up to 10 percent -- the average for the hospitalized group was 5 percent. Patients receiving aged blood saw their FMD halved to 2.4 percent 24 hours after the transfusion, while patients receiving fresh blood saw no significant change in FMD.

This effect of older blood on blood vessel function is similar in size to that of eating a fatty meal (temporary), or the longterm effects of a cardiovascular disease risk factor such as smoking or diabetes.

Healthy flow-mediated dilation reflects sufficient production of nitric oxide, which is generated by the blood vessels' endothelial lining and causes them to relax. Nitric oxide is also important for delivery of oxygen by hemoglobin. Red blood cells carry nitric oxide bound to hemoglobin, and play a critical role in recycling the nitric oxide. Over time in storage, the nitric oxide is lost. Transfused red blood cells last a couple months in the patient. The Emory team did not measure FMD beyond 24 hours.

The so-called "red blood cell storage lesion" consists of several changes including oxidation, disruption of cellular structures, and loss of other chemicals such as the energy currency ATP and the hemoglobin regulator 2,3-diphosphoglycerate. A recent study has also shown that red blood cells stored for more than three weeks lose physical flexibility.

Thus, loss of nitric oxide is probably not the only important change, but it may be significant in terms of effects on cardiovascular health, the authors argue.

"Aside from the direct infusion of nitric oxide-deficient blood, we may be also seeing an indirect effect from other aspects of storage that impact nitric oxide availability and endothelial function such as increased inflammation triggered by aged blood," Neuman says.

A 2008 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that cardiac surgery patients receiving older blood had a higher risk of dying in the hospital, and were more likely to need ventilation support or have sepsis or kidney failure. Two large-scale clinical trials (links below) are addressing the issue of the maximum time blood should be stored.

Although blood banks tend to use a "first-in, first-out" policy, limiting storage time could reduce the blood supply. One possibility could be to reserve fresh blood for those patients at most risk of cardiovascular problems, Neuman says.

Another way that nitric oxide deficiency could be remedied is with an additive such as nitrite, which the body uses as a storage reservoir for nitric oxide, or some other preservative. Red blood cells are now stored in a solution with glucose, anticoagulant and acidity buffering properties.

"There is a lot of information that blood that has been stored for a while can cause problems for patients," Neuman says. "This starts to answer the question: what is causing the problem?"

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/Efp2V2XujIk/130310164225.htm

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Pre-Order The First Living Room PC Gaming Console - Game Informer

Xi3's Piston gaming PC, designed specifically for use with your living room television, is available for pre-order right now.

The device will be $999.99 with larger prices if you need more hard drive space, but if you pre-order before the end of the day Sunday, March 9 (tomorrow), you will get $100 off.

This is the first unofficial Steam Box device, developed with Steam's Big Picture mode in mind. Vlave is still working on its own hardware, which is still mostly mysterious, but this will be a comparable device.

You can head here if you want to put down your pre-order.

[via Xi3]

Source: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/03/09/pre-order-the-first-living-room-pc-gaming-console.aspx

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Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley On Whether Hot Apps Can Still Be Born At SXSW [TCTV]

Much like Twitter got a lot of its early traction at South By Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) in Austin back in 2007, Foursquare famously started off with a bang when it launched at SXSWi in 2009. So it was great to take some time with Foursquare's founder and CEO Dennis Crowley in Austin at this year's SXSWi to talk about the past, present, and future of launching apps at the conference.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/2ypvl9rOsK4/

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Choice Hotels International And Booking.com ... - Franchising.com

SILVER SPRING, Md. - March 5, 2013 // PRNewswire // - Choice Hotels International, Inc. (NYSE: CHH), one of the world's largest lodging franchisors, today announced that it has entered into a global corporate agreement with Booking.com, a leading online travel agency (OTA), that attracts over 30 million unique online visitors from both leisure and business markets worldwide.

This agreement with Booking.com expands the reach of the Choice Hotels brands to millions of consumers in 180 countries and helps Choice Hotels develop future business relationships, especially in the international arena where Choice Hotels has a strong presence.

"Our guests are constantly changing the way they shop for and book hotels. Choice Hotels is making sure that we keep up with consumers and offer the best rates and options online to meet their needs. That's why we are extremely pleased to be working with Booking.com to further strengthen our distribution platform," said Robert McDowell , senior vice president, global distribution and loyalty, Choice Hotels International. "Since Booking.com is known for its great product, international customer base and cost effectiveness as an OTA, we are sure to see even more traffic to our franchisees hotels."

The agreement also provides both parties with flexible terms and Choice Hotels with the opportunity to diversify global relationships with leading OTAs and expand its online presence to reach new customers and continue driving record traffic to its franchise hotels. It also gives consumers who have Booking.com as their preferred online travel site, access to approximately 6,200 hotels worldwide the Choice Hotels system.

About Choice Hotels

Choice Hotels International, Inc. franchises approximately 6,200 hotels, representing more than 499,000 rooms, in the United States and more than 30 other countries and territories. As of December 31, 2012, 394 hotels, representing more than 31,000 rooms, were under construction, awaiting conversion or approved for development in the United States. Additionally, 88 hotels, representing approximately 7,800 rooms, were under construction, awaiting conversion or approved for development in more than 20 other countries and territories. The company's Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, Cambria Suites, MainStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel, Econo Lodge and Rodeway Inn brands, as well at its Ascend Hotel Collection membership program, serve guests worldwide.

Additional corporate information may be found on the Choice Hotels International, Inc. web site, which may be accessed at www.choicehotels.com.

Choice Hotels, Choice Hotels International, Choice Privileges, Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Sleep Inn, Clarion, Cambria Suites, MainStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay Hotel, Econo Lodge, Rodeway Inn and Ascend Collection are proprietary trademarks and service marks of Choice Hotels International.
2013 Choice Hotels International, Inc. All rights reserved.

About Booking.com

Booking.com is the world's leading online hotel and accommodation reservations company, and guarantees the best prices for any type of property ? from small independents to five-star luxury. Guests can access the Booking.com website anytime, anywhere from their desktop, mobile phone or tablet device, and they never pay booking fees ? ever. The Booking.com website is available in 41 languages, offers over 275,000 hotels and accommodations in 180 countries, features over 17.5 million real reviews from real guests, and attracts over 30 million unique online visitors per month from both leisure and business markets around the globe. With over 16 years of experience and a team of over 5,000 dedicated employees in more than 90 offices worldwide, Booking.com operates its own in-house customer service team available 24/7 to assist guests in their native language and ensure an exceptional customer experience.

Established in 1996, Booking.com B.V. owns and operates Booking.com?, and is part of the Priceline Group (NASDAQ: PCLN). Follow us on Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, like us on Facebook, or learn more at http://www.booking.com.

SOURCE Choice Hotels International, Inc.

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Source: http://www.franchising.com/news/20130305_choice_hotels_international_and_bookingcom_sign_co.html

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McCain, Graham warn on CIA nominee vote

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and John McCain say they want answers from the Obama administration and are willing to oppose the administration's choice to be the new CIA director until they get them.

Graham said Sunday he and McCain "are hell-bent on making sure the American people understand this debacle called Benghazi." The South Carolina Republican says he wants to understand what happened in September at the U.S. consulate in Libya that left four Americans dead.

McCain says he also wants answers about policies on torture and the Arizona senator says he deserves answers.

The Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled to vote early this week on Brennan's nomination. Brennan is currently President Barack Obama's counterterrorism adviser.

Graham and McCain spoke to CBS' "Face the Nation."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-03-Brennan-CIA/id-ed7f4d99aee54a598fa00b9a40c19a27

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