Heart Failure News and Research

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Heart failure (HF) is a condition in which a problem with the structure or function of the heart impairs its ability to supply sufficient blood flow to meet the body's needs. It should not be confused with cardiac arrest or myocardial infarction.

Patient quality, care coordination programs surface in California

The University of California, San Francisco's heart failure program is an effort to reduce repeat hospitalizations by giving patients plenty of information and support to help them after they are discharged. Since the program began three years ago, the hospital's readmission rate has dropped by 30 percent. The hospital says the program has also saved Medicare at least $1 million a year.

7 Sep 2011

Chocolate protects heart but stirs debate on intake

A new study shows that chocolates are beneficial for heart health. The study published in the British Medical Journal and presented at the European Cardiology Society's annual congress in Paris analyzed data from seven studies involving 114,009 adults, ages 25 to 93, and including information on their diets and occurrences of cardiovascular disease over periods from eight to 16 years.

6 Sep 2011

Moderate to severe cognitive impairment has impact on life expectancy

Cognitive impairment, even when detected at an early, mild stage, is a significant predictor of decreased life expectancy.

6 Sep 2011

Mesoblast receives EMA clearance to initiate Revascor Phase 2 trial for heart attacks

Global regenerative medicine company, Mesoblast Limited, today announced that it had received clearance from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to begin a 225-patient multi-center Phase 2 clinical trial in Europe for its lead cardiovascular product Revascor(TM) in conjunction with angioplasty and stent procedures to prevent heart failure after a major heart attack.

5 Sep 2011

Australia’s Mesoblast receives nod to start first European trial of allogeneic stem cell treatment for heart attacks

Global regenerative medicine company, Mesoblast Limited, (ASX: MSB), today announced that it had received clearance from the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to begin a 225-patient multi-center Phase 2 clinical trial in Europe for its lead cardiovascular product Revascor™ in conjunction with angioplasty and stent procedures to prevent heart failure after a major heart attack. Revascor™ is an allogeneic, or “off-the-shelf”, adult stem cell product derived from Mesoblast's proprietary Mesenchymal Precursor Cell (MPC) platform technology which is being developed for use in a range of cardiovascular diseases including congestive heart failure, chronic angina, and heart attacks (acute myocardial infarction).

5 Sep 2011

Inhibiting the ability of immune cells to use fatty acids slows MS progression

In a paper published today in the journal Scientific Reports, a pair of researchers at the University of California, San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences report that inhibiting the ability of immune cells to use fatty acids as fuel measurably slows disease progression in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis.

3 Sep 2011

Roche Diagnostics terminates sales and distribution agreement with Response

Response Biomedical Corporation today announced that Roche Diagnostics has terminated, effective September 30, 2011, the sales and distribution agreement between Roche and Response dated June 25, 2008. Under the terms of that agreement and related agreements, Roche Diagnostics had agreed to distribute Response's cardiovascular point-of-care (POC) tests on the RAMP® 200 Reader in the US.

From Roche Sequencing and Life Science 2 Sep 2011

New tool to predict survival after heart transplant

Johns Hopkins researchers say they have developed a formula to predict which heart transplant patients are at greatest risk of death in the year following their surgeries, information that could help medical teams figure out who would benefit most from the small number of available organs.

2 Sep 2011

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center receives ACCF's GWTG Gold award

Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center is one of only 167 hospitals nationwide to receive the American College of Cardiology Foundation's NCDR ACTION Registry-GWTG (Get with the Guidelines) Gold Performance Achievement Award for 2011.

2 Sep 2011

Longer CPR may do more harm than good: Study

A new study reveals that providing CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) for a longer period of time could actually harm certain patients. “We found that extra CPR didn't help and, in fact, in some patients it was not a good thing. It would make it worse,” said Dr. Ian Stiell, lead author of a paper published in the Sept. 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. “Our study showed that there's no reason to do two minutes of CPR or to delay defibrillation.”

31 Aug 2011

CMR predicts increased risk of sudden cardiac death in patients with myocardial infarction

Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Universität Leiden developed a method to identify a subgroup of patients with myocardial infarction that is at increased risk for sudden cardiac death.

30 Aug 2011

Postoperative outcomes of VAD bridged patients are worse than conventional therapy

Postoperative outcomes of severe heart failure patients bridged with short-term VADs to urgent heart transplantation are significantly worse than those of patients bridged with conventional support, recent data of the Spanish National Heart Transplant Registry suggest.

30 Aug 2011

Balloon pump use prior to PCI does not reduce infarct size in STEMI patients without shock

Intra-aortic balloon pump counterpulsation prior to PCI in patients with ST segment elevation MI does not reduce infarct size as measured by MRI, according to results from the Counterpulsation Reduces Infarct Size Acute Myocardial Infarction (CRISP AMI) trial.

30 Aug 2011

New chemical compounds show promise against set of protein-folding diseases

Collaborating researchers at Stanford University and The Scripps Research Institute have identified chemical compounds that show promise as potential therapeutics for a set of medical conditions caused by the abnormal clumping together of a protein known as transthyretin.

30 Aug 2011

Ivabradine reduces heart volume among patients with cardiac insufficiency

As guest speaker at the European Society of Cardiology's Congress currently under way in Paris, Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif, Director of the Montreal Heart Institute's Research Centre and professor of medicine at the Universit- de Montr-al, today presented the results of an analysis demonstrating that ivabradine, a medication used to reduce heart rate, also reduces heart volume (left ventricle) among patients with cardiac insufficiency.

30 Aug 2011

Chocolate for the heart - benefits revealed

A comprehensive analysis of previous studies including more than 114,000 subjects has shown that high levels of chocolate consumption are associated with a significant reduction in the risk of certain cardiovascular disorders.

30 Aug 2011

Specific inhibitor of microRNA-100 can stimulate development of new blood vessels

A specific inhibitor of the small regulatory RNA-molecule "microRNA-100" can be used to stimulate the growth of new blood vessels, if a major artery is chronically occluded.

29 Aug 2011

Philips to launch first sleep apnea mobile app at ESC 2011 congress

Royal Philips Electronics will provide clinicians from across the globe with a glimpse of future innovations designed to advance cardiac care, including the current management of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and associated cardiac conditions, during the 2011 Congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), which opens today in Paris.

From Philips Healthcare 29 Aug 2011

Chocolate consumption might reduce risk of heart disease

High levels of chocolate consumption might be associated with a one third reduction in the risk of developing heart disease, finds a study published on bmj.com today.

29 Aug 2011

One in three AF patients at high risk of stroke are not being prescribed VKA therapy

New data show that, worldwide, one in three patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) who are at high risk for stroke are not being prescribed anticoagulant therapy, particularly vitamin K antagonists (VKA) – medicines known to significantly lower stroke risk in these patients.

29 Aug 2011