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High levels of triglycerides, the most common type of fat in the body and the foods we eat, directly cause abdominal aortic aneurysms, according to a study in mouse models. Researchers identified triglyceride-rich lipoproteins and proteins that regulate triglyceride metabolism, including APOC3 and ANGPTL3, as causal drivers of abdominal aortic aneurysm. The study challenges the longstanding belief that triglycerides are merely biomarkers of vascular disease and instead demonstrates that they play a direct role. "We have known that hyperlipidemia is a risk factor for aortic aneurysm, but this multidimensional study pinpoints hypertriglyceridemia as an essential contributor to the development and...

Journalist Grant Wahl’s cause of death has been revealed following an autopsy after his sudden passing while reporting at the World Cup in Qatar. Wahl’s widow, Dr. Celine Gounder, told CBS News on Wednesday that her husband’s death was due to a heart condition. “He had an autopsy done here in New York by the New York City medical examiner’s office, and it showed that he had an aortic aneurysm that ruptured,” Gounder said during the interview. “It’s just one of these things that had been likely brewing for years, and for whatever reason it happened at this point in...

The death of the veteran diplomat Richard C. Holbrooke last week shocked Americans and his many colleagues around the world. Mr. Holbrooke, 69, was a larger-than-life figure, a fearless and robust man who was apparently struck down without warning. He became ill on a Friday, and was dead by Monday. According to government officials, the cause was a tear in his aorta, the artery that carries blood from the heart to vessels that feed the rest of the body. Mr. Holbrooke underwent 21 hours of surgery from Friday to Saturday to repair the damage, and then another seven-hour operation on...

ABC News has learned that Richard Holbrooke, the US Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, has died. On Friday, Holbrooke was rushed to the hospital with a torn aorta. He went through more than 20 hours of surgery. Earlier this evening, speaking at the US State Department, President Obama sang Holbrooke's praises and called him "a tough son of a gun." Holbrooke, 69, was a former ambassador to the United Nations and served as chief negotiator at the Dayton Peace Accords, which ended the war in Bosnia. The New Yorker's George Packer wrote a nice story about Holbrooke last year,...