Therapist Unlimited Blog

Here is a piece of good news to all those patients suffering from heart failure.
A recent research has shown that a therapy called cardiac resynchronization can significantly delay the progression of heart failure.
Based on the research the treatment reduced the risk of serious heart failure events by 41 percent.
Dr. David Wilber, a co-author of the study and director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Loyola University Chicago
Stritch School of Medicine revealed the research has shown that for the first time, the onset of heart failure symptoms and hospitalization for heart failure can be delayed with pacing therapy.
According to researchers, a device implanted in the upper chest delivers electrical impulses that help synchronize contractions of the left ventricle, the heart’s main pumping chamber.
Some 1,820 patients from 110 centers in the United States, Canada and Europe participated in the study.
The researchers revealed all patients in the trial had been diagnosed with early stage, mild heart failure (Class 1 and Class 2 on the New York Heart Association classification system).
The study’s principle investigator is Dr. Arthur Moss of the University of Rochester
Medical Center.
Patients were randomly assigned to two groups. A control group received an implanted defibrillator, and a second group received a defibrillator plus cardiac resychronization. (A defibrillator is a device that shocks the heart back to a normal rhythm if the patient experiences a life-threatening irregular heartbeat.)

Those persons suffering from heart failure can now use cardiac resynchronization as treatment for their medical condition.
 

Compared with the control group, the cardiac resychronization group had a significantly improved heart-pumping efficiency and a 41 percent lower risk of heart-failure events that required hospitalization or outpatient treatment with intravenous drugs.
Loyola heart failure patient Rosemary Jakubowski of Elmwood Park, Il. said that before she received cardiac resychronization, she had experienced significant fatigue.
Since receiving cardiac resychronization, Jakubowski has been taking kickboxing and swim aerobics classes, without fatigue.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved cardiac resychronization for patients with Class 3 (moderate) and Class 4 (severe) heart failure. Such patients experience marked limitations in physical activity or are unable to do any physical activity at all without discomfort.
Wilber said the study has shown that certain patients with early-stage, mild heart failure also can benefit from cardiac resychronization.