A team of researchers has now determined in rodents how congestive heart failure triggers substantive changes to the nerves that control heart function.

A landmark study has successfully demonstrated a 29 percent reduction in heart failure or death in patients with heart disease who received an implanted cardiac resynchronization therapy device with defibrillator (CRT-D) vs. patients who received only an implanted cardiac defibrillator (ICD-only).

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

Patient history and physical examination, traditionally the cornerstone diagnostic tool for medical care, may still be among the most accurate and cost-efficient methods to assess patients with congestive heart failure, researchers have found.

Although heart failure is a chronic condition, acute exacerbations are frequent and occur with serious complications; patients with heart failure and their families can help improve prognosis in acute events if they are taught to recognize the tell-tale signs of worsening condition and seek immediate medical help.

At the end of July 2009, a team of cardiac surgeons in Germany was the first in the world to implant the HeartAssist 5 ventricular assist device, the modern version of the DeBakey VAD. The device augments the pumping function of the left ventricle in an especially effective, gentle and quiet manner. It pumps blood from the weakened or failed left ventricle into the aorta.

QRS duration (QRSd) is one of several measures of heart function recorded during a routine electrocardiogram (ECG). It is a composite of waves showing the length of time it takes for an electrical signal to get all the way through the pumping chambers of the heart. Prolonged QRSd is a sign of an abnormal electrical system of the heart, and is often found when the heart isn't pumping efficiently.

Researchers have found in animal experiments that an antidepressant developed over 40 years ago can blunt and even reverse the muscle enlargement and weakened pumping function associated with heart failure.

Researchers have discovered that a prototype drug reduces heart enlargement, one of the most common causes of heart failure. Heart failure, which occurs when the heart can't pump enough blood throughout the body, affects 5 million people in the United States. The condition contributes to 300,000 deaths each year.

Patients with severe heart failure can be bridged to eventual transplant by a new, smaller and lighter implantable heart pump, according to a just-completed study of the device.