HealthBlog

Four days of scientific sessions will be devoted to the latest advances and controversies in heart failure at this year’s Heart Failure Congress 2012. The latest results from drugs and devices trials will be announced at the meeting.

Devices are one of the hottest topics in heart failure today and are the subject of this year’s main theme, “Treatment of heart failure: integrating pharmacology and technology”. Traditionally, heart failure has been treated with drugs and weight control, but the advent of novel devices including implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT), left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) and telemedicine has revolutionised the field. “Pharmacology remains a fundamental part of management but extending it to include diagnostic technology, monitoring technology, and devices for treatment and management is of key importance,” says Professor Piotr Ponikowski, President of the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).

For years, the rising costs of health care and dealing with demographic-change habe been dominant in public discourse. Health promotion could be a key factor: the calculation of health-promoting and cost of medical treatment.

Facts on german health care:

The Bavarian Minister-President Seehofer expresses doubts on the retirement age to 67.
There are several fundamental problems: on the one hand, the demographic change and the complexity associated with it funding of pensions. This draws the question of the efficiency. Another problem is the explosion in health care costs. A study of A.T. Kearney showed that 23% of costs in health sector are administrative costs.

The problems set an enormous burden for the entire economy.
Because according to a study by Booz & Company every euro invested in the prevention will bring back 5 to 16 € – depending on the nature and scope of action.

The physicians of the hospital Ortenau have analyzed the top 5 trends of this winter sports and draw attention to the particular risk of injury.

Kiteboarding, snowboarding, snow biking and snowshoeing, in winter are popular trends. And new ones are added almost every winter. Sports physicians and orthopedic surgeons regularly slope trend sport but provides for full waiting room. Especially with the most fashionable winter sports athletes often lack the necessary experience and equipment.

Consumers can now shop online world. From eBay to Amazon, from small online retailers to food vendors – they are all represented on the Internet. There are quick and easy ways to bring products directly to the consumer.

While technology allows this convenience, there are a lot of traps. Consumers need to increase their awareness of what quality they can expect. This is especially when ordering medication over the Internet.

The U.S. provider Edrugstore.MD has now created a guide on how to detect counterfeit pills.

Our heart beats 80000-150000 times a day. When it gets out of rhythm, this is called cardiac arrhythmia. The most common form of which is atrial fibrillation, which affects mainly elderly persons.

Each heartbeat is generated by an electrical impulse that originates in the so-called sinus node of the heart. If, for atrial fibrillation, this impulse is suspended. Instead, the irregular electrical impulses flare up in various areas of the atria. This can lead to a slowing of the heart beat with less than 60 beats per minute, called bradycardia, or an acceleration of more than 100 beats per minute (tachycardia).

Through this “flicker” of the atrial muscles, blood can accumulate in the courts – it can happen that blood clots, called thrombi form. These blood clots get worst in the entire circulatory system and lead to acute occlusion of arteries. Extremely dangerous is it when the blood clots reach the brain-supplying arteries. “Atrial fibrillation is the most common causes of stroke in patients who are older than 75 years old,” said Dr. Bruno M. Kaufmann, chief physician at the Internal Medicine Clinic Ortenau Wolfach.

The Ortenau Hospital (www.Ortenau-Klinikum.de) Baden-Württemberg is a hospital network with numerous medical centers and focal points at nine hospital sites and all in all 1,800 planned beds.
The local interior department has the highest expertise in cardiology, with cardioversion, so when you restore the normal heart rhythm, and in the implantation of cardiac pacemakers and event recorders and decommissioning.

Often a new onset atrial fibrillation within 48 hours of spontaneous returns again in the normal heart beat rhythm, the sinus rhythm back. “We almost always be treated with medications that reduce blood clotting, or with the help of the so-called electrical cardioversion,” says Dr. Kaufman.

One can observe different symptoms: Very often makes atrial fibrillation detected by palpitations, chest tightness and dizziness. Patients report persistent fatigue and a general feeling of weakness. Great majority of the cardiac rhythm disorders remain undetected even though for many years. In that regard, it is just recommended for people at risk of perceiving preliminary investigations.

In principle, the elderly are more frequently affected by atrial fibrillation. In addition, the heart rhythm disorder frequently a consequence of heart valve disease, under which there is an increase, over-expansion and restructuring of the atria. In addition, encourage diabetes, high blood pressure, heart failure, heart attack, a complaint of the heart, thyroid disease or congenital heart defect this disease.

To reduce the threat of stroke and arterial occlusion to a minimum, usually accompanies the administration of blood-clotting drug treatment. Very significant is the treatment of high blood pressure.