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Query: UMLS:C0018801 (heart failure)
 72,216 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

To assess racial differences in the use of oral anticoagulant therapy for patients with heart failure, we conducted a cohort study of 30 hospitals in northeast Ohio. For 12,911 Medicare enrollees consecutively admitted in 1992 through 1994 with heart failure, crude and adjusted odds of being on oral anticoagulation were determined. The crude and adjusted odds of being African Americans on oral anticoagulant therapy relative to whites were 0.57 (95% confidence interval 0.47-0.69) and 0.55 (95% confidence interval 0. 45-0.67), respectively. African-Americans with heart failure were much less likely than whites to receive oral anticoagulant therapy, even after adjusting for other variables associated with anticoagulant use.
J Gen Intern Med 2000 Feb
PMID:Racial differences in the utilization of oral anticoagulant therapy in heart failure: a study of elderly hospitalized patients. 1067 18

Chronic heart failure is a common clinical syndrome that may have different causes. Its incidence and prevalence are predicted to rise substantially over the next 10 years. There are therefore major consequences for resource provision, especially in primary care, where most patients are managed. Chronic heart failure is a serious condition with high morbidity and mortality. There is good evidence to show that treatment with angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors in patients with left ventricular systolic dysfunction improves symptoms and signs, slows progression of heart failure, reduces hospitalisation rates, and improves survival. Despite this evidence, primary care studies show that patients with heart failure are incorrectly diagnosed and inadequately treated. Most patients present in general practice, and because effective treatment relies on a correct diagnosis, this is a key step in the appropriate management of heart failure. The aim of this paper is to review the evidence about the usefulness of signs, symptoms, and investigations in diagnosing heart failure in primary care. To identify relevant studies for this review, four strategies were used: a MEDLINE search from 1993 to January 1998 using the diagnosis search filter; a MEDLINE search from 1993 to January 1998 using the guideline search filter to locate published heart failure guidelines; a search for review articles in the Cochrane Library; and a check of references in the studies identified. The search terms included MeSH terms and the keywords 'heart failure' and 'diagnosis'. All searches were limited to humans and English language articles. Studies were included in this review on the basis of quality and relevance to primary care. The review shows that symptoms and signs are important because they alert clinicians to the possibility of heart failure as a diagnosis. However, they are not sufficiently specific for confirming left ventricular systolic dysfunction. From the evidence available, a patient with suspected heart failure must have objective tests to confirm the diagnosis. These should include an electrocardiogram and, ideally, an echocardiogram. Further research is also needed on the usefulness of signs and symptoms in primary care, as most studies of heart failure have been conducted in secondary care.
Br J Gen Pract 2000 Jan
PMID:Diagnosis of patients with chronic heart failure in primary care: usefulness of history, examination, and investigations. 1069 70

Heart failure is an increasingly common and costly chronic disorder, with a rising prevalence of at least 2% in populations over the age of 45 years, mortality rates that are as poor as common solid cancers, and very high health care utilisation costs. Despite increased evidence supporting a range of effective interventions, predominantly therapeutic, there remain significant degrees of physician underperformance in terms of heart failure diagnosis and management. Until the early 1990s, the management of heart failure was largely confined to the symptomatic relief of patients with well established heart failure in fluid overload. The introduction of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors provided the first treatments that beneficially altered the prognosis of patients with the most common expression of heart failure, namely established systolic dysfunction, whether symptomatic or asymptomatic. Evidence has now extended these benefits to delaying progression of heart failure and reducing hospitalisation. Much of our understanding of the pathophysiology of heart failure stems from these studies. More recent data has clarified the limited role of digoxin, the important benefits of beta-blockade and aldosterone blockers as adjuvants to ACE inhibition, and the emerging evidence on angiotensin II antagonists. There are, in contrast to these positive findings, reliable data from Europe and North America revealing significant underperformance of primary care and hospital physicians in heart failure diagnosis and management, with evidence of underuse and underdosing of evidence-based therapies. Limited qualitative data suggest the reasons for this underperformance are complex and relate to lack of access to objective testing of ventricular function and exaggerated concerns over treatment risks and side-effects. Heart failure represents a complex cluster of aetiologies and risks that are not easy to correctly identify, even in specialist settings. Since there is now powerful evidence on how heart failure can be modified and improved, explicit guidance is needed for which suspected patients should be referred, for confirmation of diagnosis and advice on appropriate treatment regimes, and for which patients can be handled mainly within primary care but with enhanced access to objective non-invasive tests to improve diagnostic reliability and to stratify patients to evidence-based therapies. Current evidence suggests that in North America and Europe today primary care physicians do underperform in their management of patients with heart failure, often owing to factors outside of their immediate control.
Br J Gen Pract 2000 Sep
PMID:Management of heart failure: evidence versus practice. Does current prescribing provide optimal treatment for heart failure patients? 1105 Jul 92

An appraisal of published, peer-reviewed guidelines, in terms of their development methodologies and clinical effectiveness, was undertaken using a published and validated appraisal tool. Electronic databases revealed 13 guidelines on heart failure but only seven of these referred to diagnosis. The quality of the published guidelines was variable but there was consensus over the main symptoms and diagnostic tests, although only two symptoms were mentioned in all guidelines. Only two guidelines scored greater than 50% for rigour of development.
Br J Gen Pract 2001 May
PMID:Diagnosis of heart failure in primary care: an assessment of international guidelines. 1136 Jul 4

Poliovirus and enterovirus 71 (EV71) are both neurotropic enteroviruses that cause serious neurological diseases, such as poliomyelitis and encephalitis. The neurovirulence of EV71 in cynomolgus monkeys was demonstrated previously by intraspinal inoculation. In this study, an improved simian model of EV71 infection was established by using intravenous inoculation, which revealed clinical and neuropathological similarities between this model and human cases of encephalitis. Experimental EV71 infection induced direct neurological manifestations, such as tremor, ataxia and brain oedema, but not non-neurological complications, such as pulmonary oedema and cardiac failure. Using this model of EV71 infection, the neurotropic characteristics of the prototype strains of EV71 and poliovirus type 1 (PV1) were compared. Three monkeys were inoculated intravenously with 10(5.5) TCID50 EV71 and all developed neurological disease signs within 4-6 days of inoculation. However, after inoculation with 10(5.5) TCID50 PV1 strain OM1 (PV1-OM1), the major manifestation was flaccid paralysis, starting from the lower limbs 6-9 days post-inoculation. Histopathological and virological analyses of moribund monkeys revealed that disseminated EV71 infection was characterized by severe panencephalitis involving both the pyramidal and extrapyramidal systems. In contrast, the lesions induced by PV1-OM1 were mainly restricted to the pyramidal tract, particularly the spinal motor neurons, thalamus and motor cortex. In conclusion, neuropathological involvement in this model correlated well with the apparent differences in neurological disease induced by EV71 and PV1-OM1. Thus, intravenous inoculation with EV71 is an excellent model to study the neuropathology of EV71 and to evaluate candidate vaccines and potential antiviral agents.
J Gen Virol 2004 Oct
PMID:Differential localization of neurons susceptible to enterovirus 71 and poliovirus type 1 in the central nervous system of cynomolgus monkeys after intravenous inoculation. 1544 61

BACKGROUND: The potential cardiotoxicity of antipsychotic drugs is well known. The N-terminal fragment of B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) is considered to be a possible biomarker in clinical practice for the diagnosis and prognosis in patients with suspected heart failure. This pilot evaluation tests the influence of antipsychotic drugs on NT-proBNP concentration in view of the hypothesis that NT-proBNP could be used as marker for the tolerability and safety of antipsychotic medications. METHODS: On a routine basis, patient's blood samples were examined for NT-proBNP on days 0, 7 and 21 after initiation of a new antipsychotic monotherapy. All plasma samples were analysed for NT-proBNP using an electrochemiluminiscence immunoassay "ECLIA" (proBNP kit, Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany) on an Elecsys 2010 analyser. RESULTS: A difference was found in NT-proBNP values at day 0 between patients younger versus older than 40 years. Also women had comparatively lower NTproBNP on days 7 and 21. Smokers' levels of NT-proBNP values decreased more from day 0 to day 7. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that antipsychotic medication influences the plasma concentration of NT-proBNP, suggesting a possible method to identify high-risk-patients for cardiovascular adverse effects due to antipsychotic medication. Larger studies should further test this hypothesis.
Ann Gen Psychiatry 2005 May 09
PMID:N-terminal fragment of B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), a marker of cardiac safety during antipsychotic treatment. 1588 48

Case reports of traumatic aortic regurgitation caused by detached commissures are rare. We report a case of a 56-year-old man involved in a traffic accident. During his hospitalization for subdural hematoma and pulmonary contusion, he began to suffer from heart failure. He was operated on under diagnosis of severe aortic regurgitaion. The commissure between the left and the noncoronary cusps was largely detached from the aortic wall, which was easily estimated to be the cause of the prediagnosed left cusp prolapse. His aortic valve was replaced, and his postoperative course was uneventful.
Gen Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2007 Jan
PMID:Traumatic aortic regurgitation caused by a detached commissure. 1744 71

Cardiac amyloidosis can result from any of the systemic amyloidoses. The disease is often characterized by a restrictive cardiomyopathy although the particular signs and symptoms depend in part on the underlying cause. In addition to managing the symptoms of heart failure, treatment options vary depending on the etiology of amyloid deposition. It is therefore critical to identify the cause of cardiac amyloidosis before initiating definitive therapy. We present a patient with presumed immunoglobulin (AL) amyloidosis who had a circulating lambda monoclonal protein, but a bone marrow biopsy with kappa predominant plasma cells. This unusual finding called into question the diagnosis of AL amyloidosis and highlights the importance and difficulty of determining the cause of cardiac amyloid deposition before initiating treatment. We review the different forms of cardiac amyloidosis and propose a diagnostic algorithm to help identify the etiology of cardiac amyloid deposition before beginning therapy.
J Gen Intern Med 2007 Jul
PMID:An unusual case of cardiac amyloidosis. 1744 98

Telecardiology may help confront the growing burden of monitoring the reliability of implantable defibrillators/pacemakers. Herein, we suggest that the evolving capabilities of implanted devices to monitor patients' status (heart rhythm, fluid overload, right ventricular pressure, oximetry, etc.) may imply a shift from strictly device-centered follow-up to perspectives centered on the patient (and patient-device interactions). Such approaches could provide improvements in health care delivery and clinical outcomes, especially in the field of heart failure. Major professional, policy, and ethical issues will have to be overcome to enable real-world implementation. This challenge may be relevant for the evolution of our health care systems.
J Gen Intern Med 2008 Jan
PMID:Telecardiology and remote monitoring of implanted electrical devices: the potential for fresh clinical care perspectives. 1809 49

Both inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and the cardiac protective peptide adrenomedullin (AM) are increased in cardiac tissues and plasma in patients with myocardial infarction (MI) and chronic heart failure. Recently they have been increasingly recognized as important factors in the pathophysiology of MI and resultant congestive heart failure. Compared with sham-operated spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), we investigated myocardial immunoreactivity of TNF-alpha and AM and also their mutual relations in vivo in SHR+MI. Residual myocardial depression after MI was studied also in isolated perfused hearts. In chronic experiments, 24 and 48 h after permanent ligation of the descending anterior branch of the left coronary artery, we examined hemodynamics, plasma and myocardial peptide levels. Left ventricular function was assessed in isolated perfused hearts subjected to "global ischemia and reperfusion" and after induction of "calcium paradox". Circulating and myocardial TNF-alpha concentrations increased early after MI in SHR. Studies with global ischemia and calcium paradox in isolated heart showed early myocardial depression and calcium-dependent gradual increase of left-ventricular end-diastolic pressure. In the SHR+MI myocardial AM concentrations were increased 9- and 49-fold after respective 24 h and culminated 48 h following MI. Circulating and myocardial AM was increased in SHR+MI in association with TNFalpha-induced myocardial depression. The both studied cardiac parameters displayed the beneficial effect of the enhanced myocardial AM concentration.
Gen Physiol Biophys 2008 Mar
PMID:Enhanced early after-myocardial infarction concentration of TNF-alpha subsequently increased circulating and myocardial adrenomedullin in spontaneously hypertensive rats. 1843 78


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