Eating salmon or other fatty fish just once a week helped reduce men’s risk of heart failure, says a new study reported in the European Heart Journal. This study adds to growing evidence that omega-3 fatty acids are beneficial to heart health – and its findings represent one of the largest studies to investigate the association.

The researchers followed 39,367 Swedish men between the ages of 45 and 79 from 1998 to 2004. They recorded details of the men’s diet and tracked the men’s outcomes through Swedish inpatient hospital registers and cause-of-death registers. During this period, 597 men in the study (with no previous history of heart disease or diabetes) developed heart failure. Thirty-four men died.

Analysis of their numbers showed that the men who ate fatty fish – such as herring, mackerel, salmon, whitefish and char – once per week were 12 percent less likely to develop heart failure compared with men who ate no fatty fish. The researchers found the strongest link with the intake of marine omega-3 fatty acids, which are found in cod liver and other fish oils.

Incorporating fatty fish into your diet
The American Heart Association recommends eating fatty fish not once but twice per week. And while many sit-down restaurants offer fatty-fish entrees, you may be uncertain how best to prepare these dishes at home.

Earlier this year, an advisory committee of the American Stroke Association/American Heart Association issued a recommendation that the window of time for tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) therapy be extended.

The new analysis shows that the medication, which is given intravenously, can safely be used to treat strokes 4.5 hours after symptoms begin. Until this year, tPA had to be given within three hours of symptom onset.

As Jefferson Vascular Neurologist Carissa Pineda, MD, explains, tPA is the only FDA-approved drug for treating the 80 percent of strokes caused by ischemic clots. (The other major type – hemorrhagic stroke – is caused by ruptured blood vessels in the brain. Hemorrhagic stroke cannot be treated with tPA and has a much higher mortality rate than ischemic stroke.)

“tPA can be thought of as a ‘clot buster,’” Dr. Pineda notes. “Once it reaches the clot, it bursts it – limiting the areas of the brain that would have been affected.”

But as Dr. Pineda notes, the original guidelines required the clot-busting drug to be administered within three hours of the onset of symptoms. Even in top-performing hospitals, less than 5 percent of stroke patients are treated in that timeframe.

The new guideline – based on analysis of clinical studies – enables emergency-room physicians and stroke specialists to give tPA up to 4.5 hours after the onset of symptoms.

What does that mean for patients? First, the test is quicker -- the entire heart is imaged in less than five seconds. It also exposes the patient to much less radiation, compared to other cardiac imaging studies like a nuclear stress test or cardiac catheterization.

Join us for a free lunchtime program

Topic: The Medical Management to Weight Loss

Date: Thursday, November 12, 2009

Where: 925 Chestnut, 2nd floor conference room. Get Directions.

Speaker: Dr. Janine Kyrillos.

Time: 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.

You must register for this program. RSVP to 1-800-JEFF-NOW or online.

Diabetic children may feel left out when it comes to Halloween and eating candy.

Martha Zeger, MD, a Jefferson pediatric endocrinologist , was quoted in a USA Today article about how diabetic children and their families can deal with the difficulties of Halloween.

Dr. Zeger recommended that “kids can save their candy for the Halloween Fairy, who will magically leave a toy in the place of the candy.”

A patient of Dr. Zeger's was also featured in the story.

Read the full USA Today article.

They say that laughter is the best medicine.

Jefferson family physician Richard Wender and several Jefferson med students were featured in a Philadelphia Inquirer story on the use of clowns and humor in medicine.

Dr. Wender said that he is "interested in humor as a way of communicating, of creating healing relationships. Humor is part of how both patients and clinicians cope."

Each Friday evening, a group of about a dozen Jefferson staff members try to spread cheer to hospital patients, families and medical staff, the Inquirer reported.

Read the full Philadelphia Inquirer story.

Dr. Geno Merli, chief medical officer at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, was featured in a Philadelphia Inquirer cover story on new blood thinners that are coming to market.

Dr. Merli, a nationally known vascular expert, has tested many of these new oral blood thinners and believes the new batch of drugs is "promising but said their value in real-life clinical practice remained to be seen."

A picture of one of Dr. Merli’s patients accompanied the article.

Read the Philadelphia Inquirer article.

The Chest Pain Center in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital recently received full Cycle II accreditation with PCI (percutaneous coronary intervention) from the Accreditation Review Committee of the Society of Chest Pain Centers (SCPC).  With the rise of chest pain centers came the need to establish standards designed to improve the consistency and quality of care provided to patients. SCPC’s accreditation process insures centers meet or exceed quality-of-care measures in acute cardiac medicine.

The Chest Pain Center’s protocol-driven and systematic approach to patient management allows physicians to reduce time to treatment during the critical early stages of a heart attack, when treatments are most effective, and to better monitor patients when it is not clear whether they are having a coronary event. Such observation helps ensure that a patient is neither sent home too early nor needlessly admitted.

Read the full news article.

One in 25 American adults is morbidly obese – that is, roughly 100 pounds overweight or roughly 75 pounds overweight with other weight-related conditions, such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, sleep apnea and/or high cholesterol. Morbid obesity can have profound effects on quality of life. It is a significant cause of premature death and a major contributor to many other diseases and conditions, including stroke, reflux, arthritis, gallbladder disease, incontinence, polycystic ovarian syndrome and infertility.

Medical journals are now recognizing bariatric surgery as the only treatment which is truly effective at causing substantial weight loss in most patients. Bariatric surgery has evolved dramatically over the past several years, thanks to the development of a safe, fully laparoscopic (minimally invasive) approach to various procedures, as well as to the establishment of Centers of Excellence standards.

Thomas Jefferson University and Hospitals will sponsor a free heart health event this Thursday - October 8, 2009 - at City Hall in Philadelphia.

The “Heart Healthy Philadelphia Fair” offers free health screenings to the public as well as cooking and fitness demos, prizes and more. The event is part of a campaign to encourage Philadelphians to live heart healthy. TJU President Robert Barchi MD, PhD, and TJUH President and CEO Tom Lewis co-chair the Heart Healthy Philadelphia campaign committee alongside Mayor Michael Nutter and other local healthcare leaders.

Look for nutrition and exercise tips, information about the six-week “Be Healthy – A Frequent Exercise Program,” and other details about the Heart Healthy Philadelphia campaign online.

Event Overview - Heart Healthy Philadelphia Fair
Thursday, October 8
Dilworth Plaza at City Hall
8 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Heart disease is the number-one killer of Americans, yet 82 percent of heart disease is preventable. Learn more.