Heart failure patients have four times the risk of fractures and 6.3 times the risk of hip fracture as other heart patients. Heart failure patients should be screened and treated for osteoporosis if necessary, researchers said.

An implantable hemodynamic monitor may help to guide medical treatment in a large subgroup of patients with heart failure: those with diastolic heart failure.

A new study aims to improve the heart's pumping action and help to manage congestive heart failure symptoms. The US PARACHUTE trial tests the effectiveness of placing a small device in the left ventricle, or main pumping chamber of the heart. Physicians recently implanted the sixth person in the United States with the device.

At low concentrations, the toxic gas hydrogen sulfide protects the hearts of mice from heart failure, scientists have found. The research suggests that doctors could use hydrogen sulfide to treat humans with heart failure.

The number of patients over age 65 hospitalized for heart failure increased by 131 percent between 1980 and 2006. Women had a much higher annual increase than men. Among the three major forms of cardiovascular disease (coronary heart disease and stroke being the other two), only heart failure has shown a significant increase in hospitalization rates.

Heart failure patients who regularly exercise fare better and feel better about their lives than do similar patients who do not work out on a regular basis, say researchers.

Frequent arousals from sleep that occur in heart failure patients with central sleep apnea (CSA) may reflect the presence of another underlying arousal disorder rather than being a defensive mechanism to terminate apneas. Findings show that factors other than central sleep apnea may contribute to poor sleep quality in heart-failure patients.

Working out on a stationary bicycle or walking on a treadmill just 25 to 30 minutes most days of the week is enough to modestly lower risk of hospitalization or death for patients with heart failure, say researchers.

Heart failure, also known as congenital heart failure, is a medical condition that affects more than 23 million people worldwide today and claims the lives of 600,000 yearly. Finding a cure for this widespread disease has been a top goal for medical researchers since inventions in technology allowed for a better understanding of what's actually going on inside cells when defects occur.  

A family of proteins called matrix metalloprotienase may play a crucial role in why the supporting tissue surrounding the heart, called the myocardium, goes through significant and deleterious effects in heart failure patients.