Research closing in on heart disease

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Every day, new research is revealing more and better ways to treat heart disease.

	VIDEO
CNN's Rhonda Rowland examines the new studies Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

Physicians and scientists traded information on major clinical trials this week at an American Heart Association conference, sharing discoveries and treatment tactics for heart attack and stroke.

One study found that chest-pain patients who were treated aggressively -- with, say, angioplasty, cardiac bypass or sophisticated clot-busting drugs -- did better than those whose doctors took a "wait and see" approach. The chances of heart attack, re-hospitalization and death were reduced by some 20 percent over the next six months, doctors said.

"We were delighted to find that patients who get the current state-of-the-art treatment with platelet blockers, medical treatment and stents during procedures had a significant improvement in their outcome," said Dr. Christopher Cannon, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and a principal investigator for a number of heart-related studies at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.

Researchers said giving patients the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor immediately -- regardless of their cholesterol levels -- could reduce the risk of death, new heart attacks and other bad outcomes by 16 percent.

Another study of 2,200 individuals found that routinely checking patients' arteries with angiograms, then fixing blockages when necessary with bypass surgery or balloon angioplasty, could reduce those events by 18 percent.

Lipitor and other cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins are already a mainstay of treating people with bad hearts. However, heart attacks can disrupt cholesterol readings, so doctors often wait a few weeks before starting patients on the medicines.

CNN Medical Correspondent Rhonda Rowland reports.

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