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Saturday, January 22, 2011

Cutting Pollution May Help the Heart


By Todd Neale, Staff Writer, MedPage Today
Published: January 21, 2011
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

In a small town with air heavily affected by residential wood-burning, the use of high-efficiency portable air (HEPA) filters was associated with improved endothelial function in healthy adults, Canadian researchers found.
The reactive hyperemia index -- used as an indicator of microvascular endothelial function -- improved by an average of 9.4% (95% CI 0.9% to 18%) when the filters were turned on compared with when they were turned off, according to Ryan Allen, PhD, of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia, and colleagues.
At the same time, there was an average drop of 32.6% (95% CI 4.4% to 60.9%) in C-reactive protein concentrations, the researchers reported online in theAmerican Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine./.../

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