Harvard Health Content API

People too frail for heart valve surgery may have another option, researchers say. A new study found that a new aortic valve can be put in place using a thin tube threaded through an artery. The old valve is propped open and the new one is wedged into the opening. The study included 358 people with a diseased aortic valve. They were judged to be too sick to have open-heart surgery to get an artificial valve. People were randomly assigned to receive the new “transcatheter” valve or just comfort care. Within a month, 5% of those with the new valve died, compared with 2.8% of the others. Within a year, about 30% of those with the new valve died. But the one-year death rate was higher, 50%, for those who did not get a valve. Edwards Lifesciences Corp. plans to seek approval to market the valve in the United States. The study appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine.

After this week, new health insurance policies must pay for all of the cost of preventive care. The new rules were part of the health care reform bill passed earlier this year. They took effect September 23, the Associated Press reported. The coverage rule applies to services that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force strongly recommends. This is an independent advisory group. Its decisions are based on research about whether care is effective in preventing disease or deaths. Covered services for adults will include tests for high blood pressure, depression and colon cancer, among other things. Vaccines for children also are included.

Mammograms may play a smaller role in preventing breast cancer deaths than experts had thought, a new study finds. Better treatments and early diagnosis through mammography both have improved survival. The study’s design allowed researchers to separate the effects of each one. The study focused on Norway. The country began a mammogram screening program in 1996. It included women ages 50 through 69 in certain counties. They were tested every 2 years. The program later was expanded to the whole country. The study included about 40,000 women with breast cancer. Researchers looked at death rates among those women in counties that did and did not offer screening. They also looked at breast cancer death rates for the same counties 10 years before screening started. Death rates from breast cancer fell in the counties that had screening.