Heart Failure Archive

Q. I am 90 years old and have had severe heart failure for seven years after having a heart attack. I have an implantable defibrillator. It has never gone off. It is near the end of its lifetime, and the cardiologist asked me if I want it replaced. What would you advise?

A. Many people with severely damaged hearts receive implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) because they have a high risk of sudden death from rhythm abnormalities. Fortunately, you have not had this problem, but you remain at considerable risk. If a dangerous arrhythmia occurs, the defibrillator might save your life.

The antibiotic azithromycin sometimes can trigger abnormal heart rhythms. Though uncommon, it is more likely to happen to people with heart failure, diabetes, or a previous heart attack.

Vitamin E no help for heart failure.

Biomarkers help individualize care for heart attack and heart failure.

If you have a heart attack or suffer from a heart condition, you can expect to be treated according to protocols that have proved effective in large groups of people. But individual variations in symptoms and responses to treatment are common.

Today's high-tech procedure offers more benefits.

Here's another reason to get that knee replacement you've been debating: A new study presented at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons finds that adults with osteoarthritis face lower odds of developing heart failure by having a total knee replacement. The study did not show a direct cause and effect or prove definitively that a total knee replacement (TKR) could improve cardiovascular health. However, the procedure does allow the recipient to exercise again, which can lead to better heart health.

And that's just one of the benefits of today's TKR.

Low blood pressure when standing could signal heart failure

Both "stiff" and "weak" types demand attention, but stiff hearts are trickier to treat.

The term "heart failure" is ambiguous. It doesn't refer to a heart that has come to a screeching halt — that's sudden cardiac arrest.

Dr. Lynne Warner Stevenson is a Harvard Medical School professor and director of the heart failure program within the Advanced Heart Disease Section at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

Heart failure — that's such a scary term.

Heart failure, unfortunately, creates this vision in people's minds of the heart just stopping. A better term might be a handicapped heart, which either doesn't pump very well or doesn't receive blood well.

People with heart failure often can't do the mild to moderate exercise, such as walking, that benefits them so much. They're limited mostly by breathing difficulties caused by their heart's subpar pumping ability.

One way out of this predicament may be found in a small study from the University of California, San Diego. Researchers found that an eight-week thigh-strengthening regimen that's easy on the heart can improve the ability of people with heart failure to ride an exercise bike.

Average life span goes down; rehospitalization rates go up.

A silent condition like high blood pressure is sneaky. You don't feel it, and it generally doesn't cause any outward signs or symptoms. Yet it relentlessly causes problems in the arteries, heart, kidneys, and elsewhere.