Breathing air pollutants raises the risk of having a heart attack, a new review suggested. Other studies have linked air pollution levels to hospital admissions and deaths from cardiovascular disease. But making that link for heart attacks has been controversial, since the research has been mixed. In Wednesday's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Hazrije Mustafic from the Paris Cardiovascular Research Center and his team … full story

A genetic mutation appears to help survival rates in women who suffer from a common type of ovarian cancer, a new study released Tuesday found. The research appearing in the January 25 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed the mutations were found in six percent to 15 percent of women with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Kelly Bolton of the National Cancer Institute, in Bethesda, Maryland and colleagues found … full story

Obese people who had weight-loss surgery were less likely to later suffer a heart attack or stroke, or to die from one, compared to people who did not have the surgery, according to a Swedish study. The findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, come from a study of more than 4,000 obese people treated at 500 surgery departments and health care centers in Sweden. Between 1987 and 2001, half of those people opted for … full story

Some outpatient facilities may have more lapses in infection control than you’d think: According to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, about two-thirds of ambulatory surgical centers have at least one problem with infection control. Ambulatory surgical centers are facilities that provide surgery to patients who don’t need to be hospitalized or stay overnight. “It’s a disappointing number,” says lead study author Melissa … full story