Curing heartache

For sufferers of heart maladies, the daily reality of survival is a cocktail of drugs, each shepherding a myriad of side effects, and most with decreasing effectiveness the longer the user takes them.

And it’s not cheap. Studies in 2006 indicated that cardiovascular diseases cost the EU around €169bn a year. In the US, the figure is approximately $261bn (€179bn) representing twice the spending on all cancers and over fourteen times what is spent on HIV. Yet as understanding increases about the processes at work in heart disease, new solutions are coming to the foreground that look set to reduce the cost.

In the first instance, a device has been invented to help control severe hypertension in patients for whom drugs are having minimal effect. The Rheos System device functions like a pacemaker. Implanted under the collarbone, it monitors the blood pressure within the carotid arteries. When pressure increases to above 160/80 mmhg, the device induces an electric shock of between four and six volts. This invokes the body’s carotid baroflex whereby the body naturally takes steps to reduce blood pressure.Though only designed for sufferers with resistive hypertension, the device has already proven capable of reducing pressure by 35mmhg,  thereby cutting the required number of blood thinning drugs required by the patient.

In another step away from drug reliance, research led by the University of Leicester has helped develop an injection that could help radically reduce the damage caused by heart attacks and strokes.

Most damage to the heart is caused as body tissue inflames following a heart attack, shutting down blood and oxygen supplies, resulting in tissue death and scarring that can continue for up to 12 hours after the event.

Research led by Professor Wilhelm Schwaeble has identified an enzyme – known as MASP 2 – that triggers the inflammation. His team have now created an injection that activates a natural antibody that counters the effects MASP 2. Administered to the heart following an attack, it significantly improves chances of survival.

One of the most exciting prospects of the injection is that it can be administered anywhere up to 12 hours after an attack or stroke to prevent heart damage, though obviously the sooner the better. The injection is also being tested for application during transplant operations, whereby it is hoped it will reduce organ damage and increase transplant acceptance.

Despite advances, prevention is better than cure and disseminating information remains the key to reducing heart disease and attacks. Discrepancies remain along lines of race, gender and affluence. According to the British Heart Foundation, in the UK people of South Asian descent are 50 percent more likely to suffer from coronary heart disease than those of European descent while those of Afro-Caribbean background are more likely to suffer from hypertension. Poor diet, smoking and sedentary lifestyles also pose contributing factors to heart maladies, yet few people however realise or take action against the risk until it is too late.

With medication still currently the primary method of reducing high blood pressure (a central cause of heart attacks and strokes), it is perhaps time not so much to innovate but to educate regarding heart care if drug consumption is to be significantly reduced.