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Source: Duke University Medical Center Date: 2004-02-06 Popular Drug For Chest Pain May Promote Blood Vessel Damage DURHAM, NC -- Nitroglycerin -- a drug commonly prescribed for the treatment of chest pain in patients with heart conditions -- has the frustrating property that its beneficial effects are short-lived. Now, new research conducted by a German group and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators at Duke University Medical Center reveals the cellular mechanism underlying the drug's lost efficacy and raises additional concern about its potential to cause long-term injury. In rats treated with nitroglycerin for a period of three days, the activity...

Source: Penn State Date: 2003-09-01 Discovery Of 'Hot Pepper' Receptor In Heart May Explain Chest Pain, Lead To New TreatmentsThe secret to heart attack chest pain may be on the tip of your tongue. Although they may seem unlikely bedfellows, Penn State College of Medicine researchers found evidence to suggest that the same type of nerve receptors that register the burning sensation from hot peppers in the mouth may cause the sensation of chest pain from a heart attack. "Our study is the first to demonstrate that the 'hot pepper' receptor exists on the heart and may be responsible for...

HUALIEN CITY, Taiwan — Conjoined twins from a poor barangay in Pasil town in Kalinga province were successfully separated at the Tzu Chi Medical Center here by a team of prominent doctors. Conjoined at the upper abdomen and chest, one-year-old Lea and Rachel Awel seemed fated to live under each other’s shadow for the rest of their lives. But thanks to the Tzu Chi Foundation, which shouldered the cost of the operation, the girls now have a chance to live separate and normal lives. The operation, which was undertaken by 60 doctors, nurses and other medical staff headed by...