Prolonged exposure to cigarette smoke can increase levels of the stress hormone norepinephrine and enzymes in the heart that have the potential to reshape the left ventricle, according to new research.

A new study aims to improve the heart's pumping action and help to manage congestive heart failure symptoms. The US PARACHUTE trial tests the effectiveness of placing a small device in the left ventricle, or main pumping chamber of the heart. Physicians recently implanted the sixth person in the United States with the device.

As the connection between second-hand smoke and coronary heart disease (CHD) became clearer and legislation was passed to reduce such passive smoking, exposures have been reduced. Researchers have recalibrated the CHD Policy Model to better predict future trends in CHD.

Researchers have described how tobacco smoke contamination lingers even after a cigarette is extinguished -- a phenomenon they define as "third-hand" smoke. They examine, for the first time, adult attitudes about the health risks to children of third-hand smoke and how those beliefs may relate to rules about smoking in their homes.

Doris Taylor, a cardiac researcher, director at the Center for Cardiovascular Repair, may very well be the first scientist in the world to have ever built an artificial heart. Using only organic rat cells, she was able to make a dead heart beat and grow again, all in a bioreactor at the University of Minnesota. Though she did that in late 2005, it was only recently that she published her findings in the Nature Medicine journal.  

Heart failure, also known as congenital heart failure, is a medical condition that affects more than 23 million people worldwide today and claims the lives of 600,000 yearly. Finding a cure for this widespread disease has been a top goal for medical researchers since inventions in technology allowed for a better understanding of what's actually going on inside cells when defects occur.  

A new scientific study proved that families in which only the fathers smoke are more exposed to the effects of nicotine, the active substance in tobacco, than similar ones, where adults do not smoke at all, or where the father takes it outside. The survey, published in the November 15th issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, was conducted by Goyang National Center scientist, Dr. Moon-Woo Seong, and his team.  

The damaging effects of smoking and smoke exposure can be seen at any age. Pediatricians have even noted these negative effects in various stages of infant development. The consequences of maternal smoke exposure during pregnancy can range from higher rates of prematurity to increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome. Two new studies examine several physical and behavioral effects of cigarette smoke exposure on infants.

A heart damaged by heart attack is usually broken, at least partially, for good. The injury causes excessive scar tissue to form, and this plays a role in permanently keeping heart muscle from working at full capacity.

Research into tobacco dependence has shown that recent ex-smokers who find exposure to other people's cigarette smoke pleasant are not any more likely to relapse than those who find it unpleasant.