Results of a new study indicate that almost 1.3m people in the US are living with some sort of spinal cord injury that is nearly five times more than doctors’ previous estimates.

Similarly, more than 5.5m US citizens are a victim of some kind of paralysis because of different neurological problems ranging from strokes to multiple sclerosis. The study will prove quite beneficial for health authorities to find out scope and need of understanding in large hidden population.

Anthony Cahill, the lead author of the study, says: “Less extensive injuries not only go uncounted, but there are some reports which say that people with paralysis and other such injuries have a longer life span.”

The latest trial of a new heartbeat abnormality drug shows quite promising results in the condition. The drug, called dronedarone, has been tested for atrial fibrillation that is affecting nearly 2.2m Americans.

In atrial fibrillation, the upper heart chamber quivers instead of beating energetically and it can cause blood clots formation to block some brain artery can cause strokes.

In an international trial in which 2,301 patients with the condition were included, the researchers found that dronedarone decreased the number of hospitalization because of heart attack, strokes and other problems nearly 24%. The report of the trial has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine Feb.12 issue.

Dronedrone review status has been assigned by the US Food and Drug Administration and to discuss the possible approval of the drug, FDA advisory committee to meet on March 19.

The results of a new study show that decrease in blood flow, blood pressure as well as repeated surges in sleep apnea patients’ brains may become the cause of strokes or death during sleep.

Researchers from the Yale University School of Medicine find that sleep apnea becomes the cause of dropped blood flow in the brain while in episodes. When it takes place, the blood pressure of the organ begins to rise and when this happens again and again the ability of the brain to guard itself in these conditions begin to reduce.

A previous study from the Yale researchers suggests that sleep apnea patients have three times higher risk of having a stroke or death during sleep than the people who don’t suffer from this disorder.

Currently, nearly 18m people in the US are suffering from sleep apnea that is a sleeping disorder in which breathing gets hampered or ceased because of the upper airway blockage. It becomes the cause of low blood oxygen levels and rise in blood pressure. However, when the patient briefly awakens, the order restores again.

The results of a study (included 17,800 men and women with normal levels of cholesterol) showed that rosuvastatin decreases number of deaths from heart attacks and strokes.

The results have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Statins are given to people who have a moderate to high risk of a cardiovascular ‘event’.

In this trail, included people had normal cholesterol levels that were below than those levels that usually indicate a need for treatment. Those patients didn’t have any other sign of heart disease as well.

However, they had higher levels of a C-reactive protein, which indicates inflammation in the body and considered to be a maker of future cardiovascular events.

20mg of rosuvastatin seemed to cut cholesterol by 50% and C-reactive protein by 37% after an average follow-up of two years and overall, the risk for a heart attack, stroke or death from cardiovascular disease decreased by 44%.