There's life after heart failure

HEALTH

A flickering light need not always lead to darkness. It is true that until recently, lifestyle changes, strong medication and, at times, heart transplant were the primary line of treatment for heart failure patients. And these too had a limited and poor restorative record. But the recent entry of cardiac resynchronisation therapy "" a new kind of pacemaker "" has not only given these patients a new lease of life but even improved their quality of life.

A heart attack or an infection in the muscle typically lead to heart failure. Though the latter is often uncontrollable, a heart attack, in most cases, can be brought under control or even avoided. However, patients who are negligent may often find themselves heading for heart failure.

According to doctors the normal heart function, as measured by an echocardiography, is 60 per cent. When this drops to 35 per cent or less, it is said that the heart has failed to work. This, in severe cases, may even mean being bedridden for the most part of your life.

Dr Vanita Arora, consultant interventional cardiologist, Escorts Heart Institute & Research Centre says, "In normal conditions, there is coordinated and synchronised motion of all four chambers of the heart. In case of a heart failure, the main pumping chambers lose coordination and the heart compromises its pumping action." In such cases, the heart slowly gets weaker, the heart muscle thins out and heart size increases.

The cardiac resynchronisation therapy pacemaker improves the coordination of the heart's contractions using three cables instead of two, as found in normal pacemakers, and bringing the contractions to normal pace. Though the pacemaker was introduced almost five years ago, studies of its effectiveness are only now showing result .

Dr Ashwin Mehta, director cardiology, Jaslok Hospital says, "There have been numerous studies which show that not only does this pacemaker bring coordination close to normal, but also considerably improves the patient's quality of life."

From enabling bedridden patients to once again enjoy the outdoor life and weak patients to increase their activity levels to helping the heart get smaller again and reversing some of the damage caused by the failure, the cardiac resynchronisation therapy buys not time, but quality time.