Heart

A type of surgery which reshapes the scarred left ventricle, the main pumping chamber of the heart, and is often done in conjunction with heart bypass, not only failed to reduce deaths and hospitalizations in heart failure patients but also did not improve patients’ quality of life compared to bypass alone after four years of follow-up.

Researchers have gathered data that may help explain “Broken Heart Syndrome”. People who experience symptoms of the rare condition, medically known as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, experience weakened hearts, leading to symptoms that mimic heart attack. The medical community has little understanding of broken heart syndrome, making treatment difficult.

Several studies link light to moderate drinking with good heart health, but the reasons that alcohol consumption can reduce heart disease and stroke risk have been unclear. According to the results of a new study, drinking alcohol leads to socialization. Perhaps socializing enhances the heart healthy benefits of drinking alcohol.

Defibrillators are commonly recommended to patients with heart failure to prevent sudden cardiac death, but there is a lack of criteria to identify the appropriate patients for this therapy beyond having heart failure due to systolic dysfunction.