Cases of congenital heart disease (CHD), in both adolescents and adults, have been on the rise for many years. An article in a recent issue of congenital heart disease proposes that these numbers will continue to rise and that current psychological therapy for recovering patients needs improvement.
Patients treated at top-rated hospitals nationwide have nearly a one-third better chance of surviving, on average, than those admitted to all other hospitals, according to a study released today by HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings company.
With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, it?s a great time to take a look at the state of your heart.
Cardiologists at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center are helping to lead a large international study involving 83 other sites that will test 3,000 patients in an effort to determine whether exercise really is good for heart failure patients.
Many cancer patients who have heart attacks often are not treated with life saving aspirin given the belief in the medical community that they could experience lethal bleeding. Researchers at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, however, say that notion is now proven wrong and that without aspirin, the majority of these patients will die.
An inexpensive blood test may identify which heart disease patients are at the highest risk of a stroke or heart attack, allowing doctors to move more aggressively to help them. “We are very good in this country at diagnosing heart disease,” said Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, of the University of California-San Francisco, lead author of the study.
When fluid in tissues is displaced from the lower body into the upper body, the circumference of the neck grows, which may hinder the flow of air, also explaining the prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea.
China’s first “mermaid baby” died of heart failure at a hospital in central China’s Hunan Province after doctors failed to save the abandoned boy, till date there has been only two known cases in the world of children who survived the affliction.
Beta blockers, commonly used to treat high blood pressure and other heart conditions, may help to control central sleep apnea (CSA) in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF).
Dr. Angela Clark, associate professor of nursing at The University of Texas at Austin, is conducting a new study to help people living with chronic heart failure, an illness which affects five million people in the United States. Clark says an estimated one-third to one-half of hospital re-admissions for chronic heart failure could be prevented with better education about symptoms, medications and diet.