The complex symptom burden of the aged heart failure population.

Curr Opin Support Palliat Care

Salvatore Maugeri Foundation, IRCCS, Department of Cardiology, Scientific Institute of Pavia, Pavia, Italy.

Published: December 2007

Purpose Of Review: The primary remit of terminal care in heart failure is to relieve suffering, which begins with a routine and standardized assessment of symptoms using validated instruments. The scope of this review is to explore symptom burden and control, and to examine some instruments used to assess and monitor heart failure patients' distress.

Recent Findings: Elderly heart failure patients have many complaints and poor global health status. Symptoms are both of cardiac and noncardiac origin, attributable to the high frequency of comorbidities, side effects of medication and the psychosocial consequences of a chronic progressive illness.

Summary: Continuity of care, familiarity with the patient and the quality of inter-personal relationships between patients, relatives, nurses and physicians are essential to obtain high-quality end-of-life care. Validated instruments to measure symptom burden may be useful tools to quantify patients' distress and to evaluate the efficacy of care.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/SPC.0b013e3282f33f98DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

heart failure
16
symptom burden
12
validated instruments
8
complex symptom
4
burden aged
4
heart
4
aged heart
4
failure
4
failure population
4
population purpose
4

Similar Publications

Assessing platelet-derived extracellular vesicles for potential as therapeutic targets in cardiovascular diseases.

Expert Opin Ther Targets

January 2025

Department of Biochemistry, Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands.

Introduction: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide. Platelet-derived extracellular vesicles (PEV) have attracted extensive attention in cardiovascular disease research in recent years because their cargo is involved in a variety of pathophysiological processes, such as thrombosis, immune response, promotion or inhibition of inflammatory response, promotion of angiogenesis as well as cell proliferation and migration.

Areas Covered: This review explores the role of PEV in various cardiovascular diseases (such as atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, ischemia-reperfusion injury, and heart failure), with relation to its molecular cargo (nucleic acids, bioactive lipids, proteins) and aims to provide new insights in the pathophysiologic role of PEV, and methods for preventing and treating cardiovascular diseases based on PEV.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Medical Problems of Chronic Hypoxia in Highlanders Living on the Tibetan Plateau.

High Alt Med Biol

January 2025

The Research Center for High Altitude Medicine, Qinghai University, Xining, China.

Ri-Li Ge. Medical problems of chronic hypoxia in highlanders living on the tibetan plateau. 00:00-00, 2024.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: To evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of noninvasive positive pressure ventilation combined with pressure support ventilation (NPPV-PSV) in the treatment of chronic heart failure (CHF) through a meta-analysis.

Methods: A systematic search was conducted using PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, CNKI and Wanfang databases to find randomized controlled trials and cohort studies on NPPV-PSV treatment for CHF. The period of search was set from inception until 2024.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether circulating pyruvate kinase M2 (PK-M2) levels are elevated in the peripheral blood and to assess their association with diagnosis and prognosis in patients with heart failure (HF).

Methods And Results: We conducted a prospective investigation involving 222 patients with HF and 103 control subjects, measuring PK-M2 concentrations using ELISA. The primary outcome, assessed over a median follow-up of 2 years (interquartile range: 776 to 926 days), was the time to the first occurrence of either rehospitalization for worsening HF or cardiovascular death.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The study investigates the prognostic impact of sex and sex-related differences in patients hospitalized with heart failure with mildly reduced ejection fraction (HFmrEF). More data regarding the characterization of patients and their outcomes in the presence of HFmrEF are needed.

Methods And Results: Consecutive patients hospitalized with HFmrEF (ie, left ventricular ejection fraction 41%-49% and signs or symptoms of HF) were retrospectively included at one institution from 2016 to 2022.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!