Ring brings Hope for Heart Disease Patients

Congestive Heart Failure or CHF is a widely spread disease in the United States. About 6 million people are suffering from this disease and about 400,000 newly diagnosed each year. CHF means that the heart is unable to function properly hence not pumping enough blood to other organs. It is called congestive as the blood which flow out of the heart is slow so the blood returning to the heart through its veins accumulates. This causes swelling in any part of the body, legs, ankles sometimes fluid accumulate in the lungs leading to difficulties in respiration.

CHF is caused by many factors like a previous heart attack, narrowed arteries that supply blood to the heart, coronary artery disease or myocardial infarction where a scar tissue makes the heart muscle malfunction.

There is no permanent cure for CHF. Doctors recommend a heart transplant to make sure the problem is resolved. Of course, hearts are not always available and the patient may die before finding a suitable one.
The usual method in treating such disease is by taking one or a combination of some common drugs. Diuretics are prescribed to help the body get rid of the excess fluids also inotropics are used to strengthen the heartbeat, calcium channel blockers to lower blood pressure and inhibitors to dilate the blood vessels.

Doctors warn their patients to change their lifestyle. This means a lot of healthy food to lower the cholesterol level, no smoking and no drinking of alcohol. Exercise will be of great help. But despite all the known benefits of these treatments and all the warnings, mortality rates remain unacceptably high in these patients.

A new approach was adopted by Dr Steven F. Bolling, M.D., a heart surgeon at University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. In this new therapy he uses a geoform mitral heart valve which is a ring that reduces the blood leakage back to the main pumping chamber of the heart through the mitral valve. This ring is the only device that shapes the heart back to normal; it is surgically placed into the heart tightening the pumping chamber.

"The heart, which is normally about the size and shape of a football, turns into a very round basketball," says Dr. Bolling "Whatever our therapy is has to change that back to a football."

GeoForm ring was approved by the FDA last year. Dr Bolling performed this operation on 40 patients and all have improved. Only about 200 patients worldwide have had the surgery. Dr. Bolling said any patient who has heart failure is a candidate for the GeoForm ring. He says: "We've changed the shape back to normal. That, in turn, helps these patients live a much better life."

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