heart failure
U.S. hospital admission rates linked with high readmissions
High hospital readmission rates in different regions of the U.S. may have more to do with the overall high use of hospital services in those regions than with the severity of patients’ particular conditions or problems in the quality of care during and…
Kidney gene implicated in increased heart failure risk
Scientists have identified the first DNA sequence variant common in the population that is not only associated with an increased risk of heart failure, but appears to play a role in causing it.
The variant, a change in a single letter of the…
Structural defects precede functional decline in heart muscle
The disruption of a structural component in heart muscle cells, which is associated with heart failure, appears to occur even before heart function starts to decline, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Iowa Roy J. and L…
Exercise, the right prescription for patients with heart failure
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.
Mutant protein linked to heart failure
A rare case of familial heart failure has shown that a loss of calcium regulation in heart cells may directly cause this hereditary form of the disease. The researchers who studied the case, from the Harvard Medical School lab of Christine Seidman, professor of medicine, and Jonathan Seidman, the Bugher Foundation professor of genetics, developed transgenic mice for their work that now offer a model for further investigation of heart failure and calcium signaling. The study, led by research fellow Joachim Schmitt and published in the Feb. 28 Science, suggests a specific protein target for future heart disease therapies.
ACE inhibitor drug reduces heart failure in high-risk patients
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.
