- Serelaxin can cut the death rate for people with acute heart failure
- Around 900,000 people in the UK suffer from heart failure
By
Thea Jourdan
19:52 EST, 30 December 2013
|
20:48 EST, 30 December 2013
Happy hearts: A synthetic pregnancy hormone has been found to slash death rates for people with acute heart failure
A pregnancy hormone could provide the first breakthrough in 20 years for treating acute heart failure.
Doctors
found that Serelaxin, a synthetic version of the hormone relaxin, can
slash the death rate for people with the condition.
Heart
failure, which affects around 900,000 people in the UK, means the heart
can no longer pump enough blood around the body.
The body tries to
compensate by increasing the heart rate and narrowing blood vessels to
push up blood pressure.
But in the long term these put the heart under greater strain.
As
the heart becomes less efficient, blood can pool in vessels around the
lungs; the pressure builds up and fluid leaks from the blood vessels
into the tiny air sacs, causing breathlessness, tiredness and swelling.
Current
medications such as beta blockers and ACE inhibitors reduce stress on
the heart by, for example, lowering blood pressure.
This helps alleviate
symptoms but does not help the underlying condition, which can progress
to acute heart failure.
Here
the lungs are so filled with fluid the patient finds it difficult to
breathe at all, and feels as though they are drowning.
It is a
life-threatening emergency which requires immediate hospital treatment —
around 30 per cent of patients hospitalised after an episode of acute
heart failure die within a year, making it more deadly than a heart
attack.
Just ‘relaxin’: Seralaxin is a man-made version of relaxin, which rises dramatically during pregnancy in order to reduce strain on the mother¿s heart
The new treatment is
based on relaxin — levels of this rise dramatically during pregnancy in
order to reduce strain on the mother’s heart.
The amount of blood
circulating in a woman’s body increases by between 20-50 per cent in
order to transport oxygen to the foetus via the placenta.
PSORIASIS PATIENTS AT RISK
Scientists have discovered people with psoriasis are at raised risk of heart failure.
A team at the University of Copenhagen studied adults with and without psoriasis over 12 years and found those with the condition had almost double the incidence of heart failure.
The risk went up as the severity of psoriasis increased. Psoriasis causes scaly, inflamed patches and is caused by an overproduction of skin cells.
‘Chronic inflammation is a characteristic of both psoriasis and heart failure and may play a significant role in their development,’ said lead author Dr Usman Khalid, a cardiologist from Gentofte Hospital, Hellerup, Denmark.
‘Psoriasis should be considered an inflammatory disease that affects the whole body, rather than an isolated skin lesion.
‘Patients with psoriasis need education about the association between their skin condition and cardiovascular disease so that they can be sure to adopt heart-healthy behaviours.’
However,
this means her heart needs to work 30 per cent harder.
Relaxin helps by
opening up the blood vessels and reducing 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 per cent) compared to conventional
treatments such as ACE inhibitors.
Serelaxin appears to help the heart
itself, unlike existing treatments which simply improve symptoms, says
Martin Cowie, professor of cardiology at Imperial College London.
He was
not involved in the research but believes the new drug could mark ‘a
seismic shift’ in the treatment of acute heart failure.
‘The
current medications dampen the body’s own responses to the heart not
pumping properly (such as increased blood pressure) whereas Serelaxin
works in synch with the body, he says.
‘We
are not entirely clear how it works but it helps take the load off the
heart. It also helps prevent further damage to the heart and kidneys,
and this translates into longer-term benefit.’
The
drug, which was 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.
More studies are being conducted on the drug, which could be approved as early as next year.
Black raspberries fight bowel cancer
Fighting cancer: Black raspberry
Black raspberries might help prevent bowel cancer, suggest U.S. researchers.
The North American berries are a more intensely flavoured variety and are rich in antioxidants (disease-fighting compounds).
Previous studies have suggested that eating black raspberries regularly could reduce the risks of bowel cancer.
In
a new study, the Medical College of Wisconsin tested the berries on
mice with ulcerative colitis (an inflammatory condition that’s a
possible precursor to bowel cancer).
One
group of mice was fed black rasp- berries, another were put on a normal
diet, and ulceration in the colon was measured (an indicator of the
risk of cancer).
The results found the berries prevented ulceration by blocking the signals that instruct healthy cells to become malignant.
Tooth decay detector means fewer fillings
A decay detector has been designed to identify dental problems long before fillings are needed.
The
hand-held wand or probe-like device homes in on subtle changes in the
mineral content of tooth enamel — these tiny changes, a sign that the
tooth is being damaged by decay, can be detected by passing a mild
electric current through the teeth.
Detection
of decay at a very early stage is usually difficult. One problem is the
widespread use of fluoride, which helps keep the enamel intact and
apparently healthy, masking decay inside it.
In a trial starting this month at the Central University of Venezuela, the device will be used on 200 children.
Jab-free way to raise blood sugar
A device that puffs medication into the nose has been developed to tackle low blood sugar levels — hypoglycaemia — in diabetes.
This
can occur if a patient takes too much insulin, misses a meal or after
exercise, and causes drowsiness or loss of consciousness. Prolonged,
severe hypoglycaemia can led to brain damage and heart problems.
Sugary
food or drink can reverse it; in severe cases, the drug glucagon is
injected to raise blood sugar. But this is available only as a powder
that must be diluted, which is difficult during an attack.
The
new device, being tested on 70 patients at Yale University and other
U.S. centres, speeds up the delivery, administering a powdered form of
glucagon into the nostrils without the need to inhale. The trial is due
to end next May.
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