Breakthroug

h in Heart
Disease

Happy hearts: A synthetic

pregnancy hormone has been
found to slash death rates for
people with acute heart failure.

Prepared by: Mildred Toro

Dept of Business
Administration
INGL 3102

Breakthrough in Heart
Disease
Reports

have shown that Puerto Ricans have higher

rates of risk factors known to cause heart disease.

For

the last 40 years diseases of the heart has ranked

as the primary cause of death in Puerto Rico.

In

the National Vital Statistics of the Department of

Health of Puerto Rico for the year 2012, heart disease
ranked as the second most frequent cause of death
and continues to be the leading causes of death.

Breakthrough in Heart
Disease
Heart

failure, a cause of these risk factor, means

the heart can no longer pump enough blood
around the body and it tries to compensate blood
flow by increasing the heart rate and narrowing
blood vessels to raise its blood pressure. This
puts the heart under a lot of strain.

As

the heart becomes less efficient, blood pools

in the vessels around the lungs; building up
pressure and causing fluids to leaks from the
blood vessels into the tiny air sacs, it becomes so
filled with fluid the patient can find it difficult to
breathe causing symptoms like breathlessness,
tiredness and swelling of the lungs.

Breakthrough in Heart
Disease
Current

medications such as beta blockers and

ACE inhibitors reduce stress on the heart by
lowering blood pressure helping to eases the
symptoms but it does not help the cause,
therefore, progressing to acute heart failure.

Because

it is a life-threatening emergency it will

require immediate hospital treatment.

About

30 % of patients hospitalized after an

episode of acute heart failure will die within a
year, making it more deadly than a heart attack.

Breakthrough in Heart
Disease
Doctors

found that Serelaxin, which is a

synthetic version of the hormone Relaxin,
can reduce the death rate for people with
this condition.

This

new treatment is based on Relaxin A

hormone that rises its levels dramatically
during pregnancy in order to reduce strain
on the mothers heart.

Breakthrough in Heart
Disease

The amount of blood circulating in a womans body

increases by between 20-50 % in order to transport oxygen
to the fetus through the placenta. Meaning that her heart
needs to work 30 % harder.

Relaxin helps by opening up the blood vessels and reduce

blood pressure, taking excess strain off the heart; relaxin
also boosts kidney function, removing waste products from
the blood.

A six-month international study found that Serelaxin

reduced heart failure death rates by a third (37 %)
compared to conventional treatments such as ACE
inhibitors. Serelaxin appears to help the heart itself, unlike
existing treatments which simply improves symptoms. It is
believed that this new drug could mark a seismic shift in
the treatment of acute heart failure.

Breakthrough in Heart
Disease

Current medications reduces the bodys own responses to

the heart not pumping properly causing increased blood
pressure whereas Serelaxin works in synch with the body.

The doctors are not entirely clear on how it works but they
know that is will help take the load off the heart and help
prevent further damage to the heart and kidneys becoming
beneficial in the long run.

The drug, developed by Novartis, is given in a drip for the

first 48 hours after a patient is admitted with heart failure
when the risk of other organs failing is greatest, because
of the poor blood supply.

As more studies are being conducted on the drug, its

approval could be as early as next year.

Breakthrough in Heart Disease

Resources:

Read

more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2531445/
First-major-breakthrough-heart-failure-20-years-th
anks-pregnancy-hormone.html#ixzz3IXtnEXkb
www.salud.gov.pr/.../Chronic%20Disease
%20Action
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15125217
www.nanocorthx.com/.../HeartDiseaseStroke
Statistic