Search

The article reports that myocardial metabolic manipulation using drugs such as trumetazudine may offer a new therapeutic approach to the treatment of heart failure. Myocardial infarction is a definite cause of ventricular damage and heart failure. Whether heart failure commonly occurs in patients with coronary artery disease, but without prior infarction, is much less clear. Similarly, there is not a consensus about the goals behind the treatment of coronary artery disease in patients with heart failure. Relief of angina is an obvious aim. Improving prognosis is another, though how this is achieved is less obvious, especially in patients without angina. There has also been much interest in the notion that, in these patients, ameliorating one or more of the various manifestations of myocardial ischaemia, assuming that they can be accurately measured, might improve ventricular function and thereby the symptoms of heart failure and prognosis.

This article focuses on a study that explores recent population trends in the incidence of and survival from cardiogenic shock complicating acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Historically, cardiogenic shock as a result of an AMI has a poor prognosis. Its management and the management of AMI have changed in recent years. Contemporary population studies examining incidence and outcome are lacking. The adjusted incidence of cardiogenic shock has increased in recent years and there has been no improvement in survival. While the risk of developing cardiogenic shock is greater in women than in men there is no difference in survival between men and women.

This article focuses on a study related to the influence of socioeconomic deprivation on the primary care burden and treatment of heart failure in Scotland. To examine whether there are socioeconomic gradients in the incidence, prevalence, treatment, and follow up of heart failure patients in primary care. Compared with affluent patients, socioeconomically deprived individuals were 44% more likely to develop heart failure, but 23% less likely to see their general practitioner on an ongoing basis.

The article focuses on a study to investigate the influence of extracellular calcium on diaphragm fatigue. Respiratory muscle fatigue has been suggested to play an aetiologicol role in the origin of breathlessness in chronic heart failure. The cellular mechanisms associated with fatigue remain elusive due to poor understanding of excitation-contraction coupling in respiratory muscle. The diaphragm, like the heart is dependent upon extracellular calcium for activation. Consequently, any change in plasma calcium concentration could alter the force generating capacity of diaphragm.

This article focuses on a study related to long term cardiovascular (CV) consequences of angina. Although angina is a common condition there are studies that have examined its natural history. Researchers have examined the long term cardiovascular consequences of angina in a very large British epidemiological study. Though often retarded as a relatively benign condition, angina in middle age markedly increases the risk of death, myocardial infarction, heart failure, and other CV events over the next 20 years.

This article focuses on a study that explores what proportion of patients with heart failure and preserved left ventricular (LV) systolic function has an elevated B type natriuretic peptide. Many patients admitted to hospital with a clinical diagnosis of heart failure are found to have preserved LV systolic function. Of all the patients fulfilling standard diagnostic criteria for heart failure and who have preserved LV systolic function, 35.9% have biochemical evidence of LV compromise and do not have valve disease or atrial fibrillation.