Patients had generally been urged to follow guidelines suggesting that they schedule non-emergency angioplasty, an artery opening procedure common after a heart attack, at hospitals with a dedicated surgical team.

The number of strokes experienced by Americans is declining, but substantial heart health improvements are still needed as larger, higher calorie meals become more popular and obesity continues to rise.

A protein embedded in blood vessel walls may be key to preventing second or third heart attacks. Researchers suspect that stopping dangerous cell growth after a vascular injury may be the key to prevention.

Stem cell transplant patients may not only be at risk during treatment. A new study suggests that a decade later they are still more susceptible to psychological conditions and chronic illness.

Heart stem cells are in demand because damaged hearts have difficulty repairing themselves. Now researchers have identified a pool of heart stem cells capable of expanding and forming several cell types, including bone.

Race may play a role in determining which patients are more likely to need repeated procedures to widen narrowed arteries caused by coronary artery disease.

Physical or sexual abuse can leave lingering emotional scars on young girls. Such abuse also may affect them physically -- increasing their risk for heart disease, including heart attacks and strokes, once they become adults.

Less than 10 percent of heart attack patients requiring a life-saving emergency procedure are being transferred to larger hospitals within the recommended 30 minutes.

There may be no way to predict when a heart attack will strike, but new research suggests that the day of day may indicate the severity. Late night heart attacks appear to be most devastating.

For years, the health care community has agreed that people at risk of heart disease should lower their salt intake. Now, it seems that too little salt may be just as harmful as too much salt.