Heart Failure

Heart failure occurs when the heart cannot pump as much blood as the body requires. This ineffective pumping can lead to enlargement of the heart as the myocardium works harder pump the same amount of blood. Heart failure may be caused by defects in the myocardium, such as an a heart attack infarct, or due to structural issues such as severe heart valve regurgitation. Heart failure can be divided into HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), and HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). The disease is further divided into four New York Heart Association (NYHA) classes. Stage IV heart failure is when the heart is completely failing and requires a heart transplant or hemodynamic support from a left ventricular assist device (LVAD).

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St. Luke’s in Houston suspends heart transplant program after patient deaths

Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston has temporarily suspended its heart transplant program, two weeks after a joint investigation by the Houston Chronicle and ProPublica detailed its poor performance.

SGLT-2 inhibitors cut heart failure risk for diabetics with, without CVD

Type 2 diabetics who take sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors experience similar relative reductions in heart failure and mortality regardless of whether they have cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to a subanalysis of the CVD-REAL study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

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Biomarkers boost short-term CVD risk prediction for older patients

Adding biomarkers to the validated Pooled Cohort Equation (PCE) can improve predictions of cardiovascular events including heart attack, stroke and heart failure among older patients, researchers reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

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Severe eczema in adulthood may increase CVD risk by 70%

Severe and active atopic eczema in adulthood is associated with an increased risk for developing cardiovascular disease (CVD), including stroke, heart failure, myocardial infarction (MI) and atrial fibrillation (AFib), according to a new study published May 23 in The BMJ.

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Physicians don’t trust predictive tools for heart failure

Several models have been developed to predict mortality among heart failure patients, but clinicians remain reluctant to use them in everyday practice. In fact, fewer than 1 percent of patients received a prognostic estimate from their physicians in a European registry analysis published in JACC: Heart Failure.

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Fluid redistribution study paves way for new heart failure treatments

Triggering a shift in fluids from the chest to the abdomen by blocking the splanchnic nerves has the potential to relieve acute heart failure symptoms, according to research presented May 26 at Heart Failure 2018 and published simultaneously in Circulation.

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Does increased protein intake elevate the risk of HF?

Middle-aged men who eat higher amounts of protein are associated with a slightly elevated risk for heart failure (HF) than those who eat less protein, according to a new study published in Circulation: Heart Failure on May 29. There is a limited amount of information regarding how diets high in protein impact men’s HF risk.

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Video games may motivate heart failure patients to exercise more

Heart failure patients who were given instructions on how to use a Nintendo Wii device—which incorporates physical activity into video gaming—improved their exercise capacity and quality of life more than counterparts who were simply advised to exercise 30 minutes per day.

Around the web

Ron Blankstein, MD, professor of radiology, Harvard Medical School, explains the use of artificial intelligence to detect heart disease in non-cardiac CT exams.

Eleven medical societies have signed on to a consensus statement aimed at standardizing imaging for suspected cardiovascular infections.