In the joint American College of Cardiology /American Heart Association classification system, Stage B heart failure refers to patients with structural heart disease but no symptoms of heart failure. Preventing progression of heart failure in Stage B patients is a central concern to heart failure specialists, so two issues have been devoted to this topic. Part II focuses on screening to identify patients with Stage B HF and monitoring and therapeutic approaches to patients with a diagnosis of Stage B HF.
In the joint American College of Cardiology /American Heart Association classification system, Stage B heart failure refers to patients with structural heart disease but no symptoms of heart failure. Preventing progression of heart failure in Stage B patients is a central concern to heart failure specialists, so two issues have been devoted to this topic. Part I focuses on an understanding of structural heart disease and the factors that cause progression from risk of heart failure to development of structural changes.
We all think we are well-informed about cardiovascular health. But is what we think we know really accurate? Here, a renowned cardiologist describes the biological processes leading to heart and blood vessel disease. He challenges the conventional view that risk factors, poor diet, and lack of exercise are the biggest culprits. Each of these widely-described risk factors is individually discussed and Dr. Cohn concludes that their role in affecting cardiovascular health is often overstated. He promotes a greater emphasis on an individual’s personal and largely inherited cardiovascular health by simple assessment of the function and structure of the arteries and heart. By identifying early disease likely to progress he advocates for early intervention, often with drug therapy, to slow disease progression and prevent symptoms of cardiovascular disease. ThroHe concludes that health care providers can better treat patients with medications that slow the biological processes that contribute to the development of artery and heart disease. These medications lower blood pressure and cholesterol, but their main effect is to slow progression of disease even in those whose blood pressure and cholesterol levels are not elevated. He describes a strategy for identifying and treating these early abnormalities before symptoms develop. Ultimately, early diagnosis and treatment, he argues, can contribute to better prevention and the slowing of cardiovascular disease progression that would otherwise shorten our lives.
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