Report Detail
Current and Emerging Technologies for the Management of Heart Failure in the U.S.
A complex clinical syndrome in which the heart muscle gradually loses its ability to pump a sufficient volume of blood to meet the perfusion and metabolic needs of the body’s tissues and organs, heart failure (HF)—may result from any structural or functional cardiac disorder that impairs the ability of the heart chambers to fill with or eject blood.
Leading contributors to the onset of HF include cardiac dysrhythmias, cardiomyopathies, chronic high blood pressure (hypertension), infections involving the heart, obstruction of blood flow to the heart muscle due to coronary heart disease (CHD), and valvular disorders. The aforementioned conditions may be exacerbated by a number of factors including anabolic steroid use, certain cancer treatments, chronic alcohol abuse, congenital heart defects, diabetes, failure of the kidneys or liver, poor diet, severe emphysema and other respiratory illnesses, and thyroid disorders, among others.
Regardless of the underlying condition(s) triggering its onset, characteristic symptoms of HF result from impairment of ventricular function, which begins with injury or stress to the myocardium, and leads to changes in the shape and structure of the chamber in a process called cardiac remodeling. Cardiac remodeling, which begins before symptoms appear and continues throughout the progression of HF, affects the functioning of the mitral valve, degrades the mechanical performance of the heart, and increases the hemodynamic stresses on the heart walls.
Heart failure is a progressive disease with no cure short of heart transplantation, and represents a growing public health problem in the United States (U.S.). As HF mainly affects the elderly, the aging of the U.S. population is a major factor driving the increasing incidence of HF, which now approaches 10 per 1,000 population in people 65 years of age and older. According to the American Heart Association (AHA), at age 40, the lifetime risk for men and women of developing HF is 1 in 5; in addition, approximately 80% of men and 70% of women with HF who are younger than age 65 die within 8 years of diagnosis, the 1-year mortality rate is 1 in 5, and sudden cardiac death (SCD) occurs at 6 to 9 times the rate of the general population.
For the foreseeable future, a growing share of U.S. healthcare resources will be spent on the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of HF, which now represents the most common hospital discharge diagnosis. More Medicare dollars are spent on HF than for any other diagnosis, with the cost burden expected to reach an estimated $33.2 billion in 2007.