In a new study from the University of Virginia, researchers develop a new physiological measurement of heart function.
It can improve survival for heart-failure patients by identifying high-risk patients who require tailored treatments
The study is the first to show a survival benefit from wireless pressure-monitoring sensors implanted in the pulmonary arteries.
Heart failure is a condition where the heart fails to pump blood adequately through the body. It affects more than 6.5 million Americans and more than 26 million people around the world.
It causes more than 1 million hospital admissions each year, and approximately half of the patients die within five years of diagnosis.
Pulmonary artery proportional pulse pressure, or PAPP, is a new measure of heart function that can identify patients at very high risk of hospitalization or death from heart failure or high blood pressure in the heart and lungs.
Previous research showed that patients with low PAPPs were at far greater risk than those with higher PAPPs.
This study evaluated the benefits of PAPP monitoring in patients with systolic heart failure, in which the heart’s left ventricle is weak, as well as those with pulmonary hypertension—high blood pressure in the arteries in the lungs and right side of the heart.
The team reviewed data from 550 participants in a clinical trial. In the trial, participants receive an implantable, wireless heart monitor called the CardioMEMS HF System.
They found that participants with a below-average PAPP had a much higher risk of hospitalization or death than those with higher PAPPs.
Further, the monitoring offered a big benefit to those with low PAPPs, reducing the risk of death by 46% annually during two to three years of follow-up.
The findings suggest that PAPP is a very good measure of how stiff or compliant the pulmonary arteries are.
The stiffness of the pulmonary arteries determines how much resistance the right side of the heart has overcome to pump blood effectively to the lungs.
The team says the importance of this simple measure is that it can identify patients that are at the greatest risk of dying or being hospitalized. This allows doctors to tailor more aggressive treatments.
If you care about heart failure, please read studies about these high blood pressure drugs linked to higher risk of heart failure and findings of this popular diet could prevent or even reverse heart failure.
For more information about heart failure treatment and prevention, please see recent studies about these common foods could make heart failure more dangerous and results showing that coffee may help reduce the risk for heart failure.
The study is published in the journal Heart, Lung and Circulation. One author of the study is Dr. Sula Mazimba.
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