Heart Beat: April 2018

The risk of stroke or heart attack is 5 to 10 percent per year in patients with stable atherosclerosis. Obese patients with type 2 diabetes are at greatly increased risk for heart attack and stroke, largely due to elevated blood glucose, blood pressure and cholesterol levels. In the first study of its kind, stereotactic external beam radiation, a type of radiation therapy used to treat tumors, proved effective in virtually eliminating ventricular tachycardia (VT) in patients who had failed conventional treatment.