Producing an effective care plan in advanced heart failure

Heart failure management: caregiver versus care plan.

Over the last 2 decades, improved understanding of the pathophysiology of heart failure has led to significant progress in the treatment of this syndrome. Nevertheless, heart failure remains a clinical problem of truly epidemic proportions, affecting nearly 5 million people in the United States.1,2 Moreover, the lifetime risk of developing heart failure may be as high as 20%, with an annual inc...

Self-care behaviors in patients with systolic heart failure

Background and Purpose: To improve life quality, and lower mortality and rehospitalization for heart failure patients, awareness and adherence to self-care behaviors are essential. This study aims to determine the adherence level to self-care behaviors in the patients with systolic heart failure hospitalized in Alborz hospital in Karaj andShahriar hospital, and it was conducted in 2013. Methods...

Palliative care in the treatment of advanced heart failure.

Heart failure is epidemic in developed countries and is expanding rapidly worldwide. Roughly 5% of patients with heart failure have end-stage disease that is refractory to medical therapy (stage D heart failure).1 Palliative care consultation relieves symptoms, improves patient satisfaction, and decreases the costs of care for these patients. Despite this, only a small fraction of end-stage hea...

Advanced Congestive Heart Failure

Background Sympathetic hyperactivity and parasympathetic withdrawal in patients with congestive heart failure correlate closely with disease severity and overall survival. The modulating effects of drugs on the autonomic dysfunction may contribute to improve survival. Low-dose scopolamine has a vagomimetic effect in normal subjects and patients after acute myocardial infarction. We assessed whe...

Advanced Chronic Heart Failure and Heart Transplantation