Mild heart failure patients with a particular condition that results in disorganized electrical activity throughout the heart benefit substantially from cardiac resynchronization therapy with defibrillator (CRT — D), according to a study published …
An inexpensive, routine blood test could hold the key to why some patients with congestive heart failure do well after being discharged from the hospital and why others risk relapse, costly readmission or death within a year, new Johns Hopkins resea…
Heart failure patients admitted to general wards are twice as likely to die as those admitted to cardiology wards, shows a national audit of the treatment of the condition, published online in the journal Heart.
Women fared worse than men when it …
OTTAWA — November 14, 2010 — One of the largest, most extensive worldwide investigations into heart failure, led by the University of Ottawa Heart Institute (UOHI), conclusively proves that a new therapeutic implant synchronizes and strengthen…
As the population ages, health care epidemiologist Padma Kaul and cardiologist Paul Armstrong, researchers in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta, want health-care professionals to talk to their patients about their opti…
Injecting a person?s own stem cells directly into heart muscle appears safe and useful in treating end-stage heart failure, according to a rapid track report today from Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Using new DNA microarray technology, researchers have found significant changes in the expression pattern of hundreds of genes in heart muscle cells after mechanical pumps are used to take over from failing hearts. This finding represents a first step, they say, in a line of research that could help predict how heart failure patients will respond when supported by a left ventricular assist device (LVAD). These devices are employed when the heart’s left ventricle — the chamber of the heart that pumps blood throughout the body — is too weak to pump enough blood to nourish the body’s tissues. They have been used as successful short-term “bridges to heart transplant” and are increasingly being considered as long-term heart failure destination therapy, also known as “bridge to recovery.”
Exercise is good medicine for heart failure patients ? even while they await heart transplantation ? according to a new statement from the American Heart Association published in today’s print issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
The drug ramipril significantly reduced the onset of debilitating and often-fatal heart failure in a large group of high-risk patients, researchers report in today’s rapid access issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. Ramipril, trade-named Altace, is one of a family of high blood pressure medications known as ACE inhibitors. The drugs reduce the risk of death from heart failure ? the inability of a weakened or damaged heart to pump enough blood through the body ? in people who suffer heart attacks. The American Heart Association estimates that nearly 5 million people in the United States have congestive heart failure.
An interruption in normal breathing patterns during sleep which is often seen in heart failure patients may contribute to heart failure rather than just being a result, according to findings of a Mayo Clinic study.
“We are now finding that central sleep apnea, which has been previously understood as a symptom of heart failure, may contribute to the development of heart failure in people at risk,” said the study’s lead researcher.
Heart failure patients at the Ohio State University Heart Center may be seeing less of their doctors. And the doctors couldn’t be happier. A group of patients is testing a first-of-its-kind implantable monitor that transmits critical data from their heart over the telephone, eliminating travel to the doctor’s office for the same type of monitoring. Proven successful, the experimental device could herald a major breakthrough for the growing number of people diagnosed with heart failure. Those living with heart failure could enjoy an improved lifestyle with less dependency on frequent doctor visits, and for cardiac researchers it might be the most advanced bellwether device yet for detecting heart problems at their earliest stages.
More than one-fourth of adults over age 45 have abnormalities in the way their heart fills with blood and are at significantly increased risk for premature death, according to results of a study of 2,042 randomly selected residents of Olmsted County, Minn. The study is published in the Jan. 8 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).