EurekAlert! In the Spotlight - Heart Health Month

Welcome to In the Spotlight, where each month we shine a light on something exciting, timely, or simply fascinating from the world of science.

In recognition of Heart Health Month, we’re spotlighting the importance of cardiovascular wellness. From risk factors and prevention to innovative treatments, we’re exploring the science and stories shaping heart health today.

Latest News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 25-Jul-2025 14:10 ET (25-Jul-2025 18:10 GMT/UTC)

29-Apr-2025

$1M awarded to research link between cardiovascular risk reduction, GLP-1 use

American Heart Association
Grant and Award Announcement

The American Heart Association, a global force changing the future of health of all, is funding seven new scientific research studies to uncover which patients with obesity and cardiovascular disease are most likely to benefit from GLP-1 medications.

29-Apr-2025

Risk-factor changes could prevent the majority of sudden cardiac arrests

Elsevier
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new study identifying 56 non-clinical risk factors associated with sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), spanning lifestyle, physical measures, psychosocial factors, socioeconomic status, and the local environment, offers compelling evidence that improving these unfavorable profiles could prevent up to 63% of SCA cases. The article appearing in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, published by Elsevier, provides new insights into how lifestyle and environmental factors can contribute to SCA prevention.

Journal: Canadian Journal of Cardiology
Funder: National Key Research and Development Program of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Shanghai Committee of Science and Technology

29-Apr-2025

Heart disease deaths worldwide linked to chemical widely used in plastics

NYU Langone Health / NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Daily exposure to certain chemicals used to make plastic household items could be linked to more than 356,000 global deaths from heart disease in 2018 alone, a new analysis of population surveys shows. While the chemicals, called phthalates, are in widespread use globally, the Middle East, South Asia, East Asia, and the Pacific bore a much larger share of the death toll than others — about three-fourths of the total.

Journal: EBioMedicine
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health, Beyond Petrochemicals

28-Apr-2025

Long-term survival rates of some Acute Myeloid Leukaemia patients could double with sensitive bone marrow test

King's College London
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Embargoed until 23:30 (BST) on Monday 28 April 2025

A highly sensitive bone marrow test could double survival rates for some groups of younger adults with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) by helping doctors identify if they might relapse up to three months earlier.

Journal: The Lancet

28-Apr-2025

CHLA team is first in world to investigate cardiac xenotransplant as a ‘bridge’ for babies

Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Reports and Proceedings

A CHLA heart surgeon presented the xenotransplant results in a plenary session at the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation meeting.

Meeting: ISHLT 45th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions

28-Apr-2025

Simple test could better predict your risk of heart disease

Chalmers University of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

For almost 60 years, measuring cholesterol levels in the blood has been the best way to identify individuals at high risk of cardiovascular disease. In a new study, led by Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and Harvard University in the USA, researchers have shown comprehensively that a combination of two lipoprotein markers, measured in a simple blood test, can give more accurate information about individual risk of heart disease than the current blood cholesterol test, potentially saving lives.

Journal: European Heart Journal
Funder: SciLifeLab & Wallenberg Data Driven Life Science Program, Swedish Research Council

27-Apr-2025

Experts at ISHLT report urgent need for pediatric heart support devices

International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation
Reports and Proceedings

At today’s Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) in Boston, Angela Lorts, MD, MBA, issued an urgent call for improved mechanical circulatory support (MCS) devices for children with life-threatening heart conditions.

27-Apr-2025

DCD heart transplantation reaches 10-year mark, now up to 30% of transplant volumes

International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation
Meeting Announcement

Researchers at the Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) marked the 10-year anniversary of modern heart donation after circulatory death (DCD), a technique that has significantly increased transplant volumes around the world.

Meeting: ISHLT 45th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions

27-Apr-2025

Donor hearts are traveling longer distances with machine perfusion

International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation
Reports and Proceedings

In places like Australia, where metropolitan areas are separated by an entire continent, donor hearts used to go unused simply because transplant teams couldn’t get the organ to a recipient in time. Emily Granger, MBBS, cardiothoracic and heart and lung transplant surgeon at St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, Australia, addressed organ transportation time at today’s Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) in Boston.

26-Apr-2025

First-ever cardiogenic shock academy features simulation lab

International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation
Reports and Proceedings

Healthcare practitioners from around the world received hands-on training for treating patients in cardiogenic shock (CS) during a first-ever simulation lab at today’s Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) in Boston.