What is Heart Disease?

Heart disease (cardiovascular disease) is an abnormal organic condition of the heart or of the heart and circulation. It is a general term referring to a variety of medical conditions affecting the heart, including heart attack, stroke, congestive heart failure, angina, and other cardiovascular diseases. Cardiovascular disease is defined as diseases and injuries of the heart, the blood vessels of the heart, and the system of blood vessels (veins and arteries) throughout the body and within the brain. Basically, problems occur when the supply of oxygen and the necessary nutrients carried by blood are constricted or blocked which causes injury to the heart muscle. For specific information and interactive tools, click here.

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Research News

Featuring Harvard Medical School and Affiliated Hospitals

High Levels of Urinary Albumin Predict Hypertension

Cardiac Catheterization May Benefit Some Women With Heart Disease

Cardiovascular risk assessment important for HIV patients

Cholesterol-associated gene variants can predict cardiovascular events

Relaxation response may improve control of systolic hypertension

Overweight Hispanic Children Shown to have Vascular Inflammation

iPods and similar devices do not affect pacemaker function

Simple method predicts cardiovascular disease risk

Study Identifies Key Factor that Links Metabolic Syndrome

CT Scans Effective in Detecting Artery Disease

How exercise lowers risk of cardiovascular disease.

Tissue-enginereed heart structures for children.

Novel Biomarker predicts risk of death.

Estrogen Therapy and risk of cardiovascular disease.

Stroke and Head Injury can increase risk of Alzheimer's.

HIV Infection appears to increase risk of heart attack.

Genome-wide Search unearths surprising clues.

Reducing Dietary Salt lowers your risk by 25%.

Over-the-Counter Pain Relievers increase risk of high blood pressure in men.

New Risk Assessment Tool more accurately predicts women's risk.

Ability of Biomarkers Appears Limited Study suggests new biomarkers needed to predict heart disease.

Statins Reduce Risk of heart attack and stroke.

Master Cardiac Stem Cell Identified Discovery could help with regeneratve studies.

"Virtual Biopsies" of internal surfaces provided by new technique.

>More Research News

Health & Science Articles

From the Harvard Community

How NOT to Take Care of High Blood Pressure

Broken hearts found to mend themselves Stem cells awakened by heart attacks.

Research Reveals how Stem Cells Build a Heart May lead to repair of broken hearts.

“Good” Cholesterol-raising Drug on the Horizon Research presented at HMS conference.

Muscle Cells Grown into Working Heart Cells Squeezing a heart back into rhythm.

Fatty Foods Feed Heart Attacks Doughnuts are dandy in Denmark, but a heart attack in the U.S.

Sudden Cardiac Death
Risk is highest in the early period following a heart attack.

New Drug Therapy Cuts Risk of Second Heart Attack Addition of drug helps open arteries.

Low-Dose Aspirin
Shown to reduce risk of first stroke in women.

High-Dose Drugs Prevent Heart Death. Tangled tale of hormone therapy is teased into clarity at conference.

>More HU Gazette on Heart Disease

Scientific Reports

From HMS Faculty Newsletter Focus

Heart Precursor Pinpointed Arises from fewer progenitors than previously thought.

Risks Evaluated for Heart Implants
Manufacturers urged to boost reliability.

Sense of Security May Be False With Anti-inflammatories
Ibuprofen, Naproxen, Acetaminophen can raise cardiovascular risk.

Broken Hearts May Mend After All
Combo therapy coaxes heart cells to multiply.

Curtain Drawn on Hormone Therapy for Older Women
The jury is in: hormone therapy is not a good thing for preventing cardiovascular disease.

>More Science Reports