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Diseases » Congestive Heart Failure » Research

Cure Research for Congestive Heart Failure

Cure Research list for Congestive Heart Failure:

The list of research areas and treatments under analysis mentioned in various sources for Congestive Heart Failure includes:

Latest Treatments for Congestive Heart Failure

Some of the more recent treatments for Congestive Heart Failure include:

Oxygen
CPAP
Sublingual nitroglycerine
more treatments...»

Treatments for Congestive Heart Failure

Treatments to consider for Congestive Heart Failure may include:

Medical Research Breakthroughs and Congestive Heart Failure

Device based heart failure treatments: The use of mechanical devices to treat patients with severe failure is gaining momentum. Some of the mechanical devices include implantable cardiac defibrillators, biventricular pacemakers and left ventricular assist devices (definitive Ventrassist). The efficacy of these devices is good, but limitations include cost and infection. Biventricular pacing or cardiac resynchronisation therapy resynchronises cardiac contraction in patients with systolic congestive heart failure and left bundle branch block. Ventrassist is based on a continuous flow rotary blood pump that is surgically implanted in the abdominal wall and attached to the apex of the ventricle.

Cure Research discussion for Congestive Heart Failure:

Investigations also are being done to improve heart transplantation for CHF patients. In some cases, a heart transplant is the only possible treatment. However, such patients face a shortage of donor hearts. A possible solution to this critical shortage may be the use of a heart from other animals. Called xenotransplantation, this procedure once was made difficult because of the rejection of the heart by the CHF patient's immune system. However, new technologies have been forged that can overcome such a barrier. For example, scientists have been able to alter genes in the heart of a pig to diminish the immune system reaction in a baboon. Scientists still need to discover how to turn such genes on and off to prevent human rejection.

Researchers are continuing efforts to develop better devices to help the damaged heart function. Already in use is a small mechanical pump called a left ventricular assist device (LVAD). The ventricles are the heart's main pumping chambers. These chambers enlarge as CHF progresses. Muscle fibers stretch, and the heart loses strength. The LVAD is now used as a temporary assist for patients with severe CHF who are awaiting a heart transplant. However, researchers have found that the heart in patients with an LVAD often improves after months of use--so much that a transplant is no longer needed. Thus, efforts are underway to identify patients who may benefit from a longer-term LVAD. (Source: excerpt from NHLBI, Congestive Heart Failure Data Fact Sheet: NHLBI)