Inside This Issue Death on the Railways AED Volunteers Serve Florida Community FDA Expands Use of Implanted Defibrillators Watermelon: A New Functional Food Statins May Help Aortic Valve Disease One High-Fat Meal Can Harm Heart New Hope for Failing Hearts The Dia-besity Epidemic: How You Can Help Health Warning on Popular Supplements Health Recipe of the Month
	[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Preliminary research suggests that cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins could someday be used to prevent aortic valve disease. There is currently no drug therapy for the disease, in which skeletal bone cells grow in the valve.

"Valve replacement is the only option," said New York University cardiologist Dr. Daniel Fisher in an interview. "It's effective, but it's major cardiac surgery and it occasionally requires a lifelong blood thinner if the replacement is a metal valve."

The aortic valve prevents regurgitation of blood back into the heart. When the valve stiffens, it doesn't open or shut properly. Risk factors for the disease include smoking, hypertension, and high cholesterol levels. The condition may also be present at birth.

In animal studies, Dr. Nalini Rajamannan and her colleagues at Northwestern University found that statins reduced the buildup of bone and slowed progression of the disease. The researchers hope to initiate a large-scale clinical trial to investigate the effectiveness of statins in people with early aortic valve disease.