Forum for Science, Industry and Business

Air travelers with cardiovascular disease remain safe - with some recommendations

A review article by Yale researchers reaffirms that the vast majority of people with cardiovascular disease can travel safely on airlines, provided they follow basic guidelines such as carrying an ample supply of medication or waiting two weeks to travel after having a cardiac procedure.

Published in the July 20 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, the article reviewed previous studies on air travel and cardiovascular disease. "We pulled together work that has been done on the topic, synthesized the findings and created evidence-based guidelines," said first author Stephen E. Possick, M.D., a cardiology fellow at Yale School of Medicine. "While other guidelines exist, ours detail both the reasons those with cardiovascular disease might be at increased risk and the data that support the safety of airline travel in most travelers with cardiovascular disease."

Concern about air travel by cardiovascular patients exists because altitude can decrease the oxygen content in blood and impair the breakdown of blood clots, potentially leading to complications. Currently there are few medical incidents on airlines: about eight medical incidents per one million flights, according to Possick. Of these incidents, 19.4 percent were cardiac related.

Karen N. Peart | EurekAlert!
Further information:
http://www.yale.edu

Im Focus: Tiny lasers from a gallery of whispers

New technique promises tunable laser devices

Whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonators are used to make tiny micro-lasers, sensors, switches, routers and other devices. These tiny structures rely on a...

Im Focus: Ultrafast snapshots of relaxing electrons in solids

Using ultrafast flashes of laser and x-ray radiation, scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (Garching, Germany) took snapshots of the briefest electron motion inside a solid material to date. The electron motion lasted only 750 billionths of the billionth of a second before it fainted, setting a new record of human capability to capture ultrafast processes inside solids!

When x-rays shine onto solid materials or large molecules, an electron is pushed away from its original place near the nucleus of the atom, leaving a hole...

Im Focus: Quantum Sensors Decipher Magnetic Ordering in a New Semiconducting Material

For the first time, physicists have successfully imaged spiral magnetic ordering in a multiferroic material. These materials are considered highly promising candidates for future data storage media. The researchers were able to prove their findings using unique quantum sensors that were developed at Basel University and that can analyze electromagnetic fields on the nanometer scale. The results – obtained by scientists from the University of Basel’s Department of Physics, the Swiss Nanoscience Institute, the University of Montpellier and several laboratories from University Paris-Saclay – were recently published in the journal Nature.

Multiferroics are materials that simultaneously react to electric and magnetic fields. These two properties are rarely found together, and their combined...

Im Focus: Fast, convenient & standardized: New lab innovation for automated tissue engineering & drug

MBM ScienceBridge GmbH successfully negotiated a license agreement between University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) and the biotech company Tissue Systems Holding GmbH about commercial use of a multi-well tissue plate for automated and reliable tissue engineering & drug testing.

MBM ScienceBridge GmbH successfully negotiated a license agreement between University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) and the biotech company Tissue Systems...

Im Focus: Silencing bacteria

HZI researchers pave the way for new agents that render hospital pathogens mute

Pathogenic bacteria are becoming resistant to common antibiotics to an ever increasing degree. One of the most difficult germs is Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a...