Harvard Health Content API

Measuring calcium in arteries can help show whether someone might benefit from taking a statin drug, a new study suggests. The new study included 2,083 adults who did not have known heart disease. Nearly half of them had a high level of C-reactive protein (CRP) in the blood. A previous study found that people with high CRP levels are less likely to have a heart attack if they take a statin drug. These drugs reduce heart attack risk by reducing LDL (“bad cholesterol”) and inflammation. In the new study, everyone received a high-speed computed tomography (CT) scan. The test measured calcium deposits in the arteries around the heart. Researchers kept track of people for 6 years. In that time, 3 out of 4 heart attacks occurred in people who had high calcium scores. Researchers said calcium scores predicted heart attack risk better than CRP levels did.

An ultrasound test may help doctors to decide who needs surgery on arteries in the neck to prevent stroke. A new study has found that this test can show which people are more or less likely to have a stroke soon. The study included 435 people who had narrowing in their carotid arteries but no symptoms. The carotids are the arteries in the neck. Doctors looked at the arteries using ultrasound. They looked for tiny blood clots and fatty deposits called echolucent plaque. This is fattier than other types of plaque and linked with a higher risk of stroke. Researchers kept track of people for 2 years. In that time, people with the fattier plaque were 6 times more likely than others to have a stroke. Risk of a stroke was 10 times higher for people who had the clots as well as the fatty plaque. For this second group, the stroke risk was about 9% per year.

Traditional Chinese herbal medicine works just as well as oseltamivir (Tamiflu) at reducing fever from H1N1 flu, a new study says. The study appears in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study included 410 previously healthy patients who were diagnosed with a mild form of the illness. Their average age was 19. They were divided into four groups. One received the herbal formula known as Maxingshigan-yinqiaosan. The second group received Tamiflu. A third group received both the herbs and Tamiflu. And the fourth group received no treatment. Researchers looked at how long it took for the fever to go away. Those who took the herbal medicine got better just as quickly as those who took Tamiflu or those who took a mixture of herbs and Tamiflu. HealthDay News wrote about the study Aug. 16.

U.S. health officials are trying to contact 50 people who were on an airline flight along with a bat. The bat flew around the cabin while the plane was in the air, the Associated Press reported August 13. This occurred on a Delta flight from Wisconsin to Atlanta. A passenger caught the incident on video, but nobody caught the bat. Therefore, officials don’t know if it had rabies. Officials want to find out if any passengers had close contact with the bat. If so, they could be advised to get rabies shots. In an unrelated incident, U.S. officials said last week that a 19-year-old man has died in Louisiana from rabies. He was the first to die of the disease in the United States after being bitten by a vampire bat. The man, a migrant farm worker, had been bitten in Mexico a few weeks earlier, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Women who are depressed — especially those who take medicine for it — have a higher risk of stroke than other women, new research finds. The study was based on information from the long-running Nurses’ Health Study. It included 80,574 women from ages 54 through 79. None of them had a history of stroke when the study began. About 22% of them were depressed or had been depressed in the past. In the next 6 years, 1,033 strokes occurred. The stroke rate was 29% higher in women with a history of depression. The rate was 39% higher among those who took drugs called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for their depression. The journal Stroke published the study. USA Today wrote about it August 12.