Articles and Latest News

Selected Articles of Special Interest:

Patients helped by remote monitoring, study finds

(April 13, 2007) - Remote monitoring of patients with chronic heart failure has a positive impact on clinical outcomes, according to a study published this week.

A review published in the BMJ found that structured telephone support or telemonitoring by a health professional reduced admissions to hospital for chronic heart failure and deaths from all causes by nearly one fifth and improved health related quality of life. More...

Depressed Heart Failure Patients do Better with Antidepressants

Montreal – (January 23, 2007) - A Canadian study that is being published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association reports that 20% of heart failure patients suffer from depression. The study showed that while SSRI antidepressants were beneficial, standard psychotherapy was ineffective.
To learn more, go to http://www.umontreal.ca

Study Explores Cause of Exercise Intolerance in Heart Failure Patients

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. –- (November 21, 2006) -- A new study shows that blood flow to the legs is relatively normal in people with diastolic heart failure, suggesting that there must be some other explanation for the inability of these patients to do everyday activities, according to researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. This means that low blood flow with exercise, such as occurs with systolic heart failure, does not seem to be the problem. As many as half the patients with clinical heart failure have so-called "diastolic" dysfunction. To learn more, go to: http://www1.wfubmc.edu/news/NewsArticle.htm

Immune system cells are linked to certain kinds of heart failure

HOUSTON -- (November 14, 2006) -- Certain cells recruited from the immune system play a central role in functional muscle loss that can result in heart failure caused by blocked coronary arteries (as in heart attacks), said Baylor College of Medicine researchers in a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
To learn more, go to:
http://www.bcm.edu/news/item.cfm?newsID=750

Depression, Not Antidepressants, Increases Mortality Risks in Heart Failure

DURHAM, N.C. -– (November 13, 2006) -- Depressed patients have an increased risk of dying from heart failure, and a new study by Duke University Medical Center researchers may help explain why. In a study of more than 1,000 depressed patients with heart failure, researchers found that it was the depression itself, not the use of antidepressant medications that increased the death rate.
To learn more, go to: http://www.dukehealth.org/news/9948?from=RSS

ACE inhibitor, a drug used in virtually every heart failure patient, may protect the heart from chemotherapy damage

DALLAS -– (November 14, 2006) -– A drug that has become one of the cornerstones of heart failure treatment, used to lower blood pressure and improve heart function, may also prevent injury to the heart caused by potent chemotherapy drugs, researchers report in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
To learn more, go to:
http://www.americanheart.org

More evidence that exercise is good for heart failure patients - waltz your way to a healthier heart.

CHICAGO, Nov. 12 — Dancing may be a good alternative to other aerobic exercises, researchers reported at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2006. A recent study showed that chronic heart failure patients who danced at least three times a week improved their ability to function and quality of life.
To learn more, go to:
http://www.americanheart.org

Combination of Personality Traits Increases Risk for Heart Disease

DURHAM, N.C. – (November 16, 2006) -- Frequent bouts of depression, anxiety, hostility and anger have been known to increase a person's risk for developing coronary heart disease, but combining these "negative" traits may even the risk, according to a study by by psychiatrists Duke University Medical Center. The significance may be that doctors will look at these personality characteristics the same way they look at high blood pressure, as something dangerous to the patient that should be treated early.
To learn more, go to:
http://www.dukehealth.org/news/9961?from=RSS

Seven Years and Still Pumping

BIRMINGHAM, ALA. -- (November 15, 2006) -- Sumter, S.C., resident Sherri Selph was 41 in 1994 when first diagnosed with stage-two congestive heart failure. By 1999, her health had diminished so much that she was diagnosed with end-stage heart disease, and not expected to survive beyond the next six months. Then she had an artificial pump implanted to her heart, and seven years later, she has qualified for a transplant.
To read her story, go to:
http://main.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=101429

Heart Failure ACC/AHA Staging System for Patients

Heart failure is a clinical syndrome that develops when the heart's muscle becomes weakened after it is injured (eg. heart attack) or as a result of disease which causes it to lose its ability to pump enough blood to supply the body's needs. Common symptoms include shortness of breath, fatigue and leg swelling...More +

Winning the Game with Heart Failure

The words “heart failure” sound ugly, scary, and hopeless. Unfortunately, the words have been around too long to change them now, but the meaning of the words has changed remarkably over the past decade. While “heart failure” at one time represented a condition for which there was little treatment other than trying to relieve symptoms... More +

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