Heart failure (HF) can be defined as the physiological state in which the heart cannot pump blood at a rate commensurate with the requirements of metabolizing tissues or can do so only at an elevated filling pressure.  HF is usually caused by defective myocardial contraction.  At the moment, there are over 5.3 million symptomatic patients with HF in the United States, and HF is the leading cause of hospitalization in those over 65 years of age.  In the U.S., approximately $30 billion is spent on HF each year, and the condition has a lower survival rate than any type of cancer except lung cancer.  Currently, HF is treated by using drugs to reverse some of the underlying disease processes, by using mechanical devices to assist the heart, or by replacing the organ.

The first heart transplant was performed in 1967, and the first artificial heart was created in the early 1980s.  Today, slightly more than 3,000 transplants are performed each year; but according to Kimberly Parks, DO, a plan to treat HF with transplantation is like “a plan to treat poverty with the lottery.”  Because of the shortage of transplantable hearts, a number of mechanical devices are currently used to assist or replace diseased hearts.  Ventricular assist devices (VAD’s) can be connected to either or both ventricles to help the heart pump blood more effectively.  These VAD’s often serve as a bridge to transplantation for patients waiting for an organ to become available.  The ideal VAD should be mechanically reliable and resistant to thrombosis, and a few companies are working toward this goal. 

One recent study of VAD’s found that HF was at least partially reversed in eleven out of fifteen patients who received the devices, and for these eleven patients, the devices were eventually removed.  It seems that mechanical devices can promote reversible remodeling of the heart.  This result suggests that some patients with HF could benefit from early intervention.

Post a Comment

Start or edit an Artificial Heart encyclopedia article on Wikipedia.

You can link to this page from the article using the following URL:

http://www.cimit.org/forum/forum-cardio-10.07.08.Parks.html

Learn more about Wikipedia.