Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0018801 (heart failure)
 72,216 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Written informed consent for pacemaker and ICD patients should be easy to understand and provided in written form in the patient's language. Comprehensiveness is required. It is essential to address driving and running machines, complication rates, benefits in appropriate hierarchical order and future necessary interventions. Eventually potential risks, e.g., flying, sports, sexual activity should be mentioned. It is important to explain pacemaker systems and ICD devices in details including cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) for heart failure. One of the main aspects concerns protection of human subjects participating in clinical studies. Informed consent necessitates a statement that the study involves research. This statement should include explanation of the purposes of the study, expected duration, description of the procedures, identification of experimental procedures, description of foreseeable risks or discomforts, and disclosure of alternative procedures. Further information should be given on psychological concerns, sexual activity, driving and quality of life in pacemaker and ICD patients.
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PMID:The patient's informed consent for pacemakers and ICD implantation: how to write and how to explain it. 1296 29

Mucolipidosis II (ML II), also called I-cell disease, is a unique lysosomal storage disease caused by deficient activity of the enzyme N-acetylglucosamine-1-phosphotransferase, which leads to a failure to internalize enzymes into lysosomes. We report on a colony of domestic shorthair cats with ML II that was established from a half-sibling male of an affected cat. Ten male and 9 female kittens out of 89 kittens in 26 litters born to clinically normal parents were affected; this is consistent with an autosomal recessive mode of inheritance. The activities of three lysosomal enzymes from affected kittens, compared to normal adult control cats, were high in serum (11-73 times normal) but low in cultured fibroblasts (9-56% of normal range) that contained inclusion bodies (I-cells), reflecting the unique enzyme defect in ML II. Serum lysosomal enzyme activities of adult obligate carriers were intermediate between normal and affected values. Clinical features in affected kittens were observed from birth and included failure to thrive, behavioral dullness, facial dysmorphia, and ataxia. Radiographic lesions included metaphyseal flaring, radial bowing, joint laxity, and vertebral fusion. In contrast to human ML II, diffuse retinal degeneration leading to blindness by 4 months of age was seen in affected kittens. All clinical signs were progressive and euthanasia or death invariably occurred within the first few days to 7 months of life, often due to upper respiratory disease or cardiac failure. The clinical and radiographic features, lysosomal enzyme activities, and mode of inheritance are homologous with ML II in humans. Feline ML II is currently the only animal model in which to study the pathogenesis of and therapeutic interventions for this unique storage disease.
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PMID:Inheritance, biochemical abnormalities, and clinical features of feline mucolipidosis II: the first animal model of human I-cell disease. 1455 88

Heart failure continues to affect large populations within the industrialized nations. Previous therapies have been directed at increasing myocardial contractility or decreasing vascular resistance but have not addressed the mechanical dysfunction within certain subpopulations with heart failure. Biventricular pacing has been shown to improve both acute hemodynamic parameters and long-term functional capacity in patients with ventricular dysynchrony and suffering from severe heart failure. From this data, the therapy is indicated for use in patients with depressed ejection fraction, bundle branch block, and either NYHA class III or class IV heart failure, regardless of whether or not there is a separate indication for ICD placement. Recent studies suggest that biventricular pacing may remodel the failing heart. Future studies could expand the previously mentioned indications to patients suffering from mild symptoms of heart failure. This article reviews the current demographics involved within this population, the acute hemodynamic benefits experienced from biventricular pacing, the long term function benefits experienced from the therapy, and other possible benefits from the therapy.
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PMID:Cardiac resynchronization: a brief synopsis part I: patient selection and results from clinical trials. 1457 27

Biventricular pacing has emerged as a modality for treatment of patients with heart failure. Combined biventricular pacers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators offer treatment of heart failure as well as protection from sudden cardiac death. However, inappropriate ICD shocks as a result of double sensing due to widely spaced ventricular bipoles may pose a significant problem in these patients. We examined the ICD records of twenty-three patients with biventricular ICDs, and evaluated all episodes of double sensing that resulted in aborted or delivered therapy. In follow-up of 3.7 +/- 2.6 months, thirty-three shocks in fifteen episodes occurred in five patients (21.7%) due to double sensing. Four patients (17.4%) had aborted shocks due to double sensing. All episodes resulting in shock occurred because of sinus tachycardia or supraventricular tachycardia above the upper programmed pacing rate of the device with resultant AV conduction and double sensing of the nonpaced ventricular depolarization. In conclusion, double sensing of the R-wave is a common and clinically important cause of inappropriate ICD detection and shock in patients with biventricular ICDs. Appropriate programming of the ICD can prevent episodes of inappropriate shocks.
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PMID:Frequent ICD shocks due to double sensing in patients with bi-ventricular implantable cardioverter defibrillators. 1461 60

The automatic ICD improves survival in patients with a history of sudden cardiac arrest. However, some patients do not meet the guidelines for ICD implantation or are unable to receive an implantable device. This study tested the hypothesis that these patients could benefit from a wearable cardioverter defibrillator. Patients with symptomatic heart failure and an ejection fraction of <0.30 (WEARIT Study) or patients having complications associated with high risk for sudden death after a myocardial infarction or bypass surgery not receiving an ICD for up to 4 months (BIROAD Study) were enrolled into two studies. After a total of 289 patients had been enrolled in the trial (177 in WEARIT and 112 in BIROAD), prespecified safety and effectiveness guidelines had been met. Six (75%) of eight defibrillation attempts were successful. Six inappropriate shock episodes occurred during 901 months of patient use (0.67% unnecessary shocks per month of use). Twelve deaths occurred during the study 6 sudden deaths: 5 not wearing and 1 incorrectly wearing the device). Most patients tolerated the device although 68 patients quit due to comfort issues or adverse reactions. The results of the present study suggest that a wearable defibrillator is beneficial in detecting and effectively treating ventricular tachyarrhythmias in patients at high risk for sudden death who are not clear candidates for an ICD and may be useful as a bridge to transplantation or ICD in some patients.
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PMID:Use of a wearable defibrillator in terminating tachyarrhythmias in patients at high risk for sudden death: results of the WEARIT/BIROAD. 1472 Jan 47

In patients with conventional indication for ICD implantation, atrial fibrillation may occur in more than 50% during the life-span of the device and may lead to severe adverse events. Dual chamber defibrillators with atrial antitachycardia functions, including prevention algorithms, arrhythmia detection capability and atrial therapy options (antitachy pacing and cardioversion) have been recently introduced. The aim of this review is to examine the effectiveness of these new devices and to identify patients who may benefit. We recently studied 112 patients who received the device because of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias. Fifty-five percent of them had atrial fibrillation prior to implantation. During the follow-up (one year on average), 27% had at least one episode of sustained atrial tachyarrhythmia. Effectiveness of atrial antitachy pacing was 71% on regular atrial tachycardia and 36% on irregular atrial tachyarrhythmias. Atrial shock efficacy was over 90% when adequately programmed. Interestingly, near half of the episodes started as regular atrial tachycardia and accelerated and became less organized in few minutes. Early delivery of antitachy pacing may increase success rate and decrease the need for atrial shock. Furthermore, it may prevent atrial remodeling and reduce atrial fibrillation burden. Based on our experience, we recommend that all patients with a class I indication for defibrillator implantation (related to risk of ventricular arrhythmias) who have a history of or are at risk of developing atrial tachyarrhythmias should receive a dual chamber defibrillator equipped with atrial antitachycardia functions. Furthermore, patients either with a history of heart failure, with poor functional capacity (functional class III or IV), depressed left ventricular ejection fraction, a need for monitoring of atrial rhythm, or in whom there is some concern about appropriate detection of ventricular arrhythmias, may benefit from a single device capable of managing ventricular and supraventricular arrhythmias.
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PMID:Efficacy of atrial antitachycardia functions for treating atrial fibrillation: observations in patients with a dual-chamber defibrillator. 1507 Dec 51

To date, generally accepted indications for prophylactic defibrillator implantation in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy do not exist. Recently, the Marburg Cardiomyopathy Study (MACAS) revealed left ventricular ejection fraction to be the only significant arrhythmia risk predictor in a relatively large patient population with dilated cardiomyopathy. Meanwhile, the preliminary results of two prospective randomized trials evaluating prophylactic defibrillator therapy in dilated cardiomyopathy have been reported. The Defibrillators in Nonischemic Cardiomyopathy Treatment Evaluation study (DEFINITE) randomized 458 patients with a history of symptomatic heart failure, a left ventricular ejection fraction < or = 35% and arrhythmias on Holter to an ICD versus no ICD. As a result, ICD therapy was associated with a significant reduction of arrhythmic deaths, which failed to result in a significant decrease in total mortality due to an insufficient number of patients in DEFINITE. The Sudden Cardiac Death in Heart Failure Trial (SCD-HeFT) was a three-arm study comparing placebo to amiodarone to prophylactic ICD therapy in a total of 2,521 patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy (51%) or nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (49%). All patients in SCD-HeFT had a left ventricular ejection fraction inverted exclamation mark U 35% despite optimized medical heart failure therapy. SCD-HeFT showed a significant reduction of total mortality in the ICD group, whereas amiodarone did not improve survival.
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PMID:Arrhythmia risk stratification with regard to prophylactic implantable defibrillator therapy in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. Results of MACAS, DEFINITE, and SCD-HeFT. 1516 63

This article continues a series of reports on recent research developments in the field of heart failure. Key presentations made at the American College of Cardiology meeting, held in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA in March 2004 are reported. These new data have been added to existing data in cumulative meta-analyses. The WATCH study randomised 1587 patients with heart failure and left ventricular systolic dysfunction to warfarin, aspirin or clopidogrel. The study showed no difference between the effects of these agents on mortality or myocardial infarction, but hospitalisations for heart failure were higher on aspirin (22.2%) compared to warfarin (16.1%). The SCD-HeFT study showed that ICD therapy reduced all-cause mortality at 5 years by 23% in patients with predominantly NYHA class II heart failure and left ventricular systolic dysfunction, but amiodarone was ineffective. The DINAMIT study showed that ICD therapy was not beneficial in patients with left ventricular dysfunction after a recent MI, even in those with risk factors for arrhythmic death. In CASINO, levosimendan improved survival compared with dobutamine or placebo in patients with decompensated heart failure. INSPIRE showed that SPECT imaging can be used to assess risk early after acute MI safely and accurately. Rimonabant was shown to be safe and effective in treating the combined cardiovascular risk factors of smoking and obesity. An overview of new developments in cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) in heart failure is also reported.
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PMID:Clinical trials update and cumulative meta-analyses from the American College of Cardiology: WATCH, SCD-HeFT, DINAMIT, CASINO, INSPIRE, STRATUS-US, RIO-Lipids and cardiac resynchronisation therapy in heart failure. 1518 77

In a prospective multicenter study of coping, subjective well-being and objective course of the disease we recruited patients with life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias awaiting the implantation of a cardioverter defibrillator. All patients received a semistructured interview and a number of well validated self-assessment questionnaires. In addition, detailed cardiological findings were documented. The present paper describes the study rationale and design as well as the main study hypotheses. In addition, we present representativity data for the inclusion sample and cross-sectional psychometric findings obtained before implantation of the device. The study sample consists of 286 patients with severe ventricular arrhythmias and is almost representative for all ICD recipients in the participating centers and ICD recipients in general. Despite their severe physical impairment, patients only showed moderate levels of psychological abnormalities. Only patients with severe heart failure or a history of repeated resuscitations showed elevated rates of anxiety or depression. However, there were relevant associations among the self-rating scales: Patients with abnormal anxiety or depression scores reported significantly elevated levels of physical complaints and depressive coping. They also showed low social support and an impaired quality of life. These cross-sectional findings add to the international literature on coping and well-being of patients with malignant cardiac arrhythmias. On the background of earlier research findings and clinical experience our results show high plausibility. Prospective changes over time in the different dimensions of psychosocial adjustment and their prognostic power for future quality of life and arrhythmic events will be reported separately.
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PMID:[Cardiological and psychosocial status of patients with malignant ventricular arrhythmias before implantation of a cardioverter defibrillator. First results from the German Austrian ICD Multicenter Study (GAIMS)]. 1528 42

The aim of this study was to estimate the hospitalization incidence and the total number of hospital days related to all fractures and osteoporotic fractures in the year 2000 in Switzerland and to compare these with data from other frequent disorders in men and women. The official administrative and medical statistics database of the Swiss Federal Office of Statistics (SFOS) from the year 2000 was used. It covered 81.2% of all registered patient admissions and was considered to be representative of the entire population. We included the ICD-10 codes of 84 diagnoses that were compatible with an underlying osteoporosis and applied the best matching age-specific osteoporosis attribution rates published for the ICD-9 diagnosis codes to the individual ICD-10 codes. To preserve comparability with previously published data from 1992, we grouped the data related to the ICD-10 fracture codes into seven diagnosis pools (fractures of the axial skeleton, fractures of the proximal upper limbs, fractures of the distal upper limbs, fractures of the proximal lower limbs, fractures of the distal lower limbs, multiple fractures, and osteoporosis) and analyzed them separately for women and men by age group. Incidences of hospitalization due to fractures were calculated, and the direct medical costs related to hospitalization were estimated. In addition, we compared the results with those from chronic pulmonary obstructive disease (COPD), stroke, acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, diabetes and breast carcinoma from the same database. In Switzerland during 2000, 62,535 hospitalizations for fractures (35,586 women and 26,949 men) were registered. Fifty-one percent of all fractures in women and 24% in men were considered as osteoporotic. The overall incidences of hospitalization due to fractures were 969 and 768 per 100,000 in women and men, respectively. The hospitalization incidences for fractures of the proximal lower limbs and the axial skeleton increased exponentially after the age of 65 years. The direct medical cost of hospitalization of patients with osteoporosis and/or related fractures was 357 million CHF. Hip fractures accounted for approximately half of these costs in women and men. Among other common diseases in women and men, osteoporosis ranked number 1 in women and number 2 (behind COPD) in men. When compared with data from 1992, the average length of stay had shortened by 8.4 days for women and 4.7 days for men, leading to a decrease of almost 40% in direct medical costs related to acute hospitalizations. This apparent decrease in cost might result from a shift into the ambulatory cost segment, for which the assessment and management tools need to be developed. We conclude that, in 2000, osteoporosis continued to be a heavy burden on the Swiss healthcare system. Lack of awareness of the disease and its consequences prevents widespread use of drugs with anti-fracture efficacy. This limits their potential to reduce costs.
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PMID:Epidemiology and direct medical costs of osteoporotic fractures in men and women in Switzerland. 1537 32


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