4 risk factors raise probability of developing precursor of heart failureJune 09, 2009Four well-known risk factors for heart attack significantly increased the size of the heart's left ventricle, a key precursor of heart failure, according to a study in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. High blood pressure, excessive weight, smoking and diabetes were strongly correlated with greater size of the heart's left ventricle over the short term (four years) and the long term (16 years) in a study of more than 4,217 people. "Left ventricular mass has been associated in multiple studies with risk of cardiovascular disease, including risk of developing heart failure. We identified four risk factors that promote greater cardiac mass over the adult life course. These factors can be directly targeted for prevention and lowering these risk factors, therefore, could potentially lower the burden of heart failure." said Ramachandran S. Vasan, M.D., the study's senior author, a senior investigator at the Framingham Heart Study, and professor of medicine and the chief of the section of Preventive Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. Researchers assessed the effect of risk factors on left ventricular (LV) mass by analyzing longitudinal data from the Framingham (Mass.) Offspring Study. The participants averaged 45 years of age at study entry. Fifty-three percent were women. The Framingham Offspring Study enrolled children of participants of the original Framingham Heart Study, which began in 1948. Researchers used data obtained at an initial exam in the 1970s and data from follow-up exams conducted at four-year intervals through the late 1990s, and evaluated short-term associations of LV mass using data from 2,605 of the participants. Study members were divided into three groups: low, intermediate and high numbers of risk factors. High blood pressure, excessive weight, smoking and diabetes strongly correlated with greater left ventricular mass; age, and gender were also associated with heart muscle thickening, researchers said. "People with fewer risk factors had almost no increase in LV mass with age," Vasan said. "People who had more risk factors had a steeper increase in LV mass with age." Other findings included: * In the 16-year risk analysis, women showed a greater and steeper rate of LV mass increase as they aged compared to men, something not found in the short-term analysis. * People with diabetes - particularly women - had a steep increase in muscle thickening over time, even after adjusting for other risk factors. In a second Circulation article, Vasan, Pencina and others describe a simple "calculator" they devised to predict an adult's 30-year risk of dying due to a coronary or cerebrovascular event or suffering a non-fatal heart attack or stroke. Researchers analyzed data from 4,506 Framingham Offspring Study members (51.8 percent women, average age 36) at enrollment for "hard" cardiovascular disease (CVD) events - coronary death, heart attack, and fatal and nonfatal strokes. All participants were free of heart disease and cancer at the time of their first examination (1971). Median follow-up was 32 years. Among the findings: * Women - free of CVD at baseline - on average had a 7.6 percent 30-year risk of suffering a hard CVD event, after researchers adjusted for other causes of deaths, such as cancer and accidents. * Men - free of CVD at baseline - on average had an 18.3 percent 30-year risk of such a CVD event after adjustment. * Standard risk factors, including high blood pressure, cholesterol levels, smoking and diabetes, significantly increased an individual's long-term CVD risk. * Excessive weight, as measured by body mass index was a statistically non-significant predictor of CVD events in the short-term observation period, but became significant over 30 years. * Thirty-year risk estimates, made by extrapolating existing 10-year cardiovascular risk models, proved inadequate predictors of long-term risk. The interactive calculator "will enable physicians to enter patient data and obtain the 30-year risk estimates for their patients," said Michael J. Pencina, Ph.D, the study's first author and an associate professor of biostatistics at Boston University. "My hope would be that we can increase awareness of cardiovascular risk in younger people, who may have lower 10-year risks but higher 30-year risks, and encourage them to take steps to maintain optimal levels of their risk factors." For example, a 25-year-old woman who smokes and has hypertension and high-risk cholesterol levels has a 1.4 percent risk of suffering a hard CVD event by age 35 (10 years of follow-up), but her risk is 12 percent by age 55 (over a 30-year period). American Heart Association |
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| Related Heart Failure Current Events and Heart Failure News Articles Researchers develop innovative imaging system to study sudden cardiac arrest A research team at Vanderbilt University has developed an innovative optical system to simultaneously image electrical activity and metabolic properties in the same region of a heart, to study the complex mechanisms that lead to sudden cardiac arrest. Experts unveil new CVD guidelines and position papers Several new guidelines and position papers offering the most up to date information to ensure that clinicians practice evidence-based medicine were released at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2009 this week. UT Southwestern patient first in North Texas to receive newest-generation heart failure device UT Southwestern Medical Center patient Michael LeBlanc, 40, is the first in North Texas to receive the newest generation of a mechanical device designed to improve heart function. It will be his lifeline while he awaits a heart transplant. Learning the risks for stroke - and taking action With this theme in mind, the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) emphasises that most of the risks for stroke are also the major risks for coronary heart disease - and thus the object of the ESC's far-reaching prevention programme. Concurrent imaging of metabolic and electric signals in the heart Cardiac rhythm disorders can result from disturbances in cardiac metabolism. These metabolic changes are tightly linked with specific cardiac electrophysiology (CEP) abnormalities, such as depressed excitability, impaired intra- and extracellular conductivities, wave propagation block, and alteration of conduction velocity, action potential amplitude, and duration. Canadian cardiology team clears the way for lifesaving breast cancer treatment A team of Canadian cardiologists, in collaboration with oncologists, are playing an important role in the war against breast cancer Dr. Michael McDonald told the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2009, co-hosted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Cardiovascular Society. 'Superobesity,' chronic disease burden associated with risk of death following bariatric surgery Veterans classified as superobese and those with a higher chronic disease burden appear more likely to die within a year of having bariatric surgery, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Thyroid surgery safe for older patients, study finds Thyroid surgery is safe for older patients, say physicians who found only slight differences in rates of complications and hospital readmissions in a multi-year study. New mathematical model more accurately diagnoses acute heart failure in emergency rooms Researchers at St. Michael's Hospital have developed the first mathematical model in cardiology and emergency medicine to more quickly and reliably diagnose acute heart failure (AHF) in emergency room patients. Cost Effectiveness of Blood Pressure Device Evaluated A study conducted by the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) demonstrates that, for certain patient populations, an experimental device that lowers blood pressure may be a cost effective treatment. The implantable device, called Rheos, is in advanced stages of testing for individuals with drug resistant hypertension. More Heart Failure Current Events and Heart Failure News Articles |
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