The Urgent Need to Help Patients Who Have Advanced Heart Failure

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death and hospitalization in the United States and in Kentucky. The annual total cost of heart disease to our nation is $21 billion. Kentucky has the fifth highest incidence per capita of death from heart disease in the United States. The need is urgent:

• Only five percent of patients with advanced heart failure survive for five years.
• Seventy-five percent of advanced heart failure patients who are dependent on medical therapy alone (medications) will die within one year.
• According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the American Heart Association, an estimated 400,000 people are diagnosed with advanced heart failure in the United States each year.
• Almost five million Americans have heart failure. This enormous number is expected to increase because of our aging population.

Heart assist devices can help heart failure patients in three ways. First, ventricular assist devices (VADs) can be used as a temporary bridge for heart transplant patients who are waiting for a donor heart. Second, VADs can be permanently implanted in patients who are not candidates for a heart transplant. Third, VADs can be used to help the heart until it has time to recover its functioning capacity. The newer generation of heart assist devices are smaller and require less energy, making them suitable for smaller patients such as women and children.

Because these newer-generation heart assist devices are still experimental, researchers do not know their long-term effects on the natural heart and blood vessels. The Cardiovascular Innovation Institute will be uniquely qualified to test these devices both in the lab and in patients to generate concrete data on the effect of the devices on the native heart, patient survival, and quality of life. In addition, because of the broad exposure to patients using these heart assist devices, researchers at the Cardiovascular Innovation Institute will be able to help industry develop the next generation of devices, what might be called bio-adaptive heart innovations. These next-generation bio-adaptive heart innovations will help physicians provide the best possible care for advanced heart disease patients and enable them and their families enjoy a better quality of life.