Heart Failure Guidelines: New Therapy, Startling Statistics

The following is a literature review of the article “Heart Failure Guidelines Focus on Prevention, New Therapies” by Wilbert S. Aronow, MD. The article originally appeared in Geriatrics, volume 61 issue 1, in January 2006.

The American College of Cardiology and The American Heart Association (ACC/AHA) recently released their most up-to-date heart failure guidelines. The guidelines are developed to help enrich the quality of life for those patients suffering from heart failure. Because of the growing understanding of heart failure within the healthcare community and the development of new treatments, heart failure is becoming a more manageable disease. The following are the main treatments and areas of awareness addressed by the guidelines:

Treatments

• Increased use of beta blockers to treat heart failure because angiotensin receptor blockers are almost as reliable as ACE inhibitors
• Combined use of nitroglycerin and hydrolazine in African-American individuals
• Additional use of device therapy including ventricular pacing, cardiac resynchronization, or implantable devices
• Encouraged aerobic exercise including walking and bike riding

Renewed Awareness

• Coronary artery disease
• Other heart diseases
• Hypertension
• Elevated blood pressure
• Diabetes

These updated guidelines are of great importance to the field of geriatric healthcare. Geriatrics patients are statistically shown as having a need for increased cardiac care. The ACC/AHA states that one out of every ten individuals over the age of 65 will experience heart failure. Heart failure most commonly affects people over the age of 65, representing over two thirds of those afflicted with the chronic disease in America. These numbers will continue to rise as the number of people over 65, or those requiring geriatric healthcare for cardiac needs, also increases over the next decade. With increasing developments in cardiac care, such as those set forth in the ACC/AHA guidelines, geriatric healthcare professionals who follow these advances can assist their patients and improve their health and quality of life.