Our research helps heart failure breakthrough
When your heart muscle
is too weak to pump as efficiently as it should, heart failure can develop.
An estimated 700,000 people are affected
by heart failure in the UK, most of which have
permanent, irreversible damage to
the way their heart pumps blood. Heart failure normally affects
people when they're older, but in rare cases it can also affect
young people.
Until recently, doctors were helpless in the battle against
heart failure. No medicines existed to improve the life expectancy
of heart failure patients.
Real breakthroughs
With the help of
research we funded there've been some real
breakthroughs, especially the use of medicines called
ACE inhibitors.
BHF Professor Stephen
Ball and his team
helped to prove the benefit of the ACE inhibitor
drugs in patients with heart failure after a heart attack.
GPs now prescribe them
as a matter of course for heart failure, and they usually
lead to a substantial improvement in quality of life and outlook
for patients.
Getting tested for heart failure used to be
complicated for heart patients. Another
breakthrough means that in most cases we can now rule out
heart failure with a simple blood
test which looks for B-type natriuretic
peptide.
The future
Our experts have been working on a theory that failing
hearts have difficulty producing energy. Professor Michael
Frenneaux is investigating a medicine he hopes will reduce
the burden of heart failure and relieve the symptoms.
In pilot studies, the treatment (called
perhexiline) saw patients who could only walk
slowly, for short
distances and on flat ground walk at a reasonable
pace for further and even manage a flight of
steps. Professor Frenneaux is looking
for funding from industry to take his research
forward.
We've also funded researchers at Harefield
Hospital who've investigated whether
a mechanical device that takes over the work of the heart
could
help failing hearts. Working with patients who
have dilated
cardiomyopathy, their work could help us
understand how to bring more hearts back from the
brink.
Stem cell research offers heart failure
sufferers great hope for the future. Successfully harnessing them
could mean our hearts will be able to repair
themselves.
Dr Paul Riley is involved in some fascinating
research that's helping unravel how we might encourage heart
cells to regenerate or replace damaged tissue.
And the BHF Centre of Research
Excellence at Imperial College London
is pioneering stem cell research in the UK,
led by BHF Professor Michael
Schneider and colleagues.
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