Heart Failure Health Center

News and Features Related to Heart Failure

31. Hospital Stays Shorter for Heart Failure
    

    June 1, 2010 -- The average hospital stay for heart failure has declined from almost nine days to just over six days in a little over a decade, but there is new evidence patients may be being sent home too soon. The current Medicare fee-for-service system rewards hospitals for discharging patients s

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32. Clip Closes Door on Leaky Heart Valves
    

    March 17, 2010 (Atlanta) -- A clothespin-type device that clips together the partially open doors of leaky heart valves may spare some patients the need for open heart surgery, doctors say. In a new study, the clip was safer and worked nearly as well as surgery for people with the leaky valve condit

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33. Living With Advanced Heart Failure
    

    There’s no cure for congestive heart failure -- not yet anyway. But if you or a loved one is among the 5.8 million Americans living with heart failure, even if it’s advanced, you should know that simple self-care measures can effectively help curb fatigue, shortness of breath, swelling, and other sy

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34. LVADs for End-Stage Heart Failure: An Alternative to Transplants
    

    More than 5 million Americans have heart failure, a progressive and often lethal condition that weakens the heart and saps its pumping power. The mainstays of treatment -- including drug therapy, lifestyle modification, and surgery to implant pacemakers or defibrillators -- can be quite effective at

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35. Heart Failure: 8 Signs Your Treatment Is Not Working
    

    If you or a member of your family is among the 5 million Americans who suffer from heart failure, you may already know how important it is to take all prescribed medication. (This is not always easy because it can mean taking 15 to 20 drugs and working with multiple health-care professionals). You a

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36. 2/3 of Heart Failure Patients Don't Get Major Drug
    

    Oct. 20, 2009 -- More than two-thirds of patients hospitalized with serious heart failure aren't prescribed an aldosterone antagonist, a recommended therapy that increases the odds of survival. Aldosterone is a hormone that is released in the setting of heart failure. It causes salt and water retent

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37. Study Questions Heart Device for Women
    

    Sept. 14, 2009 -- Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) may not reduce deaths in women with heart failure, according to a new research review. The review, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, is based on data from five studies that together included 3,810 men and 934 women with h

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38. Heart Failure Different in Women
    

    July 27, 2009 -- Women with heart failure live longer than men with the disease, but they have more illness and hospitalizations and poorer overall quality of life, a review of the research shows. The analysis confirms that men and women often have different risk factors for developing heart failure

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39. Healthy Lifestyle Halves Heart Failure Risk
    

    July 21, 2009 -- Men who follow a healthy lifestyle may cut their risk of heart failure in half. Researchers say it’s the first time a large study has shown that modifiable lifestyle factors, such as diet, exercise, alcohol use, and smoking, can have a significant impact on the lifetime risk of cong

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40. 4 Factors That Increase Odds of Heart Failure
    

    June 9, 2009 -- Smoking, high blood pressure, excess weight, and diabetes are major risk factors for increasing the size of the heart's left ventricle (the main pumping chamber) a new study shows. An increase in the size and thickness, or "mass," of the left ventricle is a worrisome condition that c

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