José López, MD, discusses the results of a study he led examining contemporary trends in racial disparities as it pertains to LVAD utilization in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.
Dr Parmita S Desai, senior field clinical manager, of Abbot’s heart failure business in India, walks us through a 17 year old’s journey after heart failure. That’s where the LVAD fits in. Implanted through open heart surgery, the device pumps blood from the lower chambers of the heart to the rest of the body when the heart is too weak to do so on its own. It can also act as a bridge therapy for patients – keeping them alive while awaiting a heart transplant.
While B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels remain high in patients with end-stage heart failure with cardiogenic shock, these levels lose their prognostic value in patients using ventricular assist devices (VADs).
Although suicide is legal and the ACT Government is working to legislate for voluntary assisted dying (VAD), recent insensitive actions of police in Canberra suggest that police think suicide is illegal.
When someone is in heart failure, doctors can use a small, mechanical device called an LVAD to help pump blood and give the heart a chance to rest and recover.