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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 Experts at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics meeting on Thursday said studies have shown that clearing blockages and installing stents increases the survival rates of heart attack patients, compared with relying on clot-busting drugs, the Times reported.
Despite that evidence, tens of thousands of American heart attack patients are treated at hospitals that don't have catheterization labs where stents are implanted. Patients at these hospitals are simply given drugs, rather than being transferred to medical centers that can do stenting procedures.
At many small hospitals that do have catheterization labs, stenting experts are not available during nights or on weekends. That means heart attack patients who arrive outside of weekday hours often receive only drugs, the Times reported.
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Experts said the United States needs a nationwide policy of transferring patients, if necessary, so they can be quickly stented, and approach that's been effective in Denmark and Sweden, the Times said.
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U.S. Government to Revise Physical Activity Guidelines
The U.S. government says it will develop new guidelines for physical activity and release them by late 2008. The goal is to help people live healthier lifestyles and slow soaring healthcare costs.
More than half of American adults don't get enough physical activity that offers real benefits, and about one-quarter aren't active at all in their leisure time, according to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.
He noted that more than 60 million adults are obese and that lack of exercise is a factor in the $2 trillion that Americans spend on healthcare, the Associated Press reported.
The federal government already makes recommendations about exercise but the new guidelines will reflect the latest scientific findings about physical activity.
Establishment of new guidelines was recommended by the U.S. Institute of Medicine's Committee on Childhood Obesity.
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