A blood test for fibrin developed at the Washington University School of Medicine may help emergency room doctors decide whether patients with chest pain are at risk of heart attack or death and could help determine the most effective and efficient method of treatment. The researchers found that high levels of fibrin products in blood indicated an increased risk of heart attack or unstable angina.

Research conducted at Federico II University, Naples, Italy suggests that obesity itself damages blood vessels, even in the absence of high blood pressure and other known risk factors for artery disease. The researchers used ultrasound to measure the thickness of carotid arteries in 310 middle-aged women living in southern Italy and found that carotid artery thickness increased with obesity. The research suggests that it could be useful to include carotid ultrasound assessment in screening evaluations of obese subjects to identify those at especially high cardiovascular risk who may require more aggressive therapy."
Source: Stroke, November 2002.

Scientists at the University of Tennessee have reported that genetic differences between people can explain why some develop a fatal "flesh-eating" disease as a result of a Group A streptococcus (GAS) infection, while others colonized by the same strain only suffer a sore throat. They found that variants in HLA-II genes, a set of genes that encode proteins on the surface of human immune cells offer protection against severe forms of infection. And they found others that made patients more likely to develop potentially fatal toxic shock syndrome or necrotising fasciitis, which causes rapid loss of flesh.