Heart failure currently affects over five million Americans, with approximately 550,000 new cases diagnosed each year, and is the leading cause of hospitalization in patients over 65.1 Coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, cardiomyopathy, valvular disorders and high blood pressure are often precursors to heart failure, but it is difficult to predict if and when heart failure symptoms will occur, and how rapidly they will progress.
Although heart failure is a serious condition with no specific cure, if patients are directed to intensive heart failure treatment programs in a timely manner, they can return to reasonable daily activity levels. Currently available therapies include medications, implanted devices, and procedures used to manage the underlying disease and symptoms such as shortness of breath, fluid accumulation, and arrhythmias. However, it is often difficult to determine which therapy or combination of interventions will provide the best results for an individual patient.
At CardioDx we began our work in this area by studying patient response to beta blockers based on genotypes of beta adrenergic receptors.2 We continue to explore how we can provide physicians with informative, actionable tests to enable them to individualize the complex approaches to the assessment, monitoring and care of their heart failure patients.
- Rosamond W, Flegal K, Furie K, et al. Heart disease and stroke statistics--2008 update: a report from the American Heart Association Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Subcommittee. Circulation. Jan 29 2008;117(4):e25-146.
- Sehnert, AJ, Kraus, W, et al. Lack of Association Between Adrenergic Receptor Genotypes and Survival in Heart Failure Patients Treated With Carvedilol or Metoprolol. JACC. Aug 19 2008: 52: 8.
