Search the hub
Showing results for tags 'Heart disease'.
Found 89 results
-
Content Article
What's your heart age? NHS Health Check
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Heart conditions
A new study by Staffordshire University shows that people who understand their ‘heart age’ are more likely to make healthy lifestyle changes. 50 preventable deaths from heart attack or stroke happen every day and Public Health England’s online Heart Age Test (HAT) allows users to compare their real age to the predicted age of their heart. The tool aims to provide early warning signs of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, encouraging members of the public to reduce their heart age through diet and exercise and to take up the offer of an NHS Health Check. -
News ArticleA new study has found stress in the workplace could be leading women suffering from warning signs of heart disease. These signs included work-related stress, sleep disorders, and tiredness - which are important but non-traditional risk factors for having a heart attack or a stroke. Dr Wagner, a neurology professor at the University of Zurich, said "Traditionally men have been perceived to be more affected by heart attacks and strokes than women, but in some countries, women have overtaken men. There is a gender gap and further research is needed to find out why”. Read full story. Source: The Independent, 31 August 2021
-
News Article
NHS pharmacies to offer blood pressure checks to tackle heart problems
Patient-Safety-Learning posted a news article in News
In an effort to tackle heart problems, a new NHS scheme will be rolled out in pharmacies where patients over 40 will be able to have their blood pressure checked. The scheme, set to begin checks from October in some 11,300 pharmacies across England, will also give patients clinical and lifestyle advice or referred to treatment where necessary when getting their blood pressure checked. Helen Williams, national speciality adviser for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at NHS England and NHS Improvement, said: “As a pharmacist, I am delighted that this service is being rolled out across England. Community pharmacies are ideally placed to deliver blood pressure checks, being accessible within local communities and regularly used by most adults. This service will enable people with high blood pressure to be identified and treated early and will encourage conversations about lifestyle change to help people live healthy lives for longer.” Read full story. Source: The Independent, 24 August 2021 -
News Article
Night shifts linked to heart problems, study finds
Patient-Safety-Learning posted a news article in News
A new study has found night shifts are "significantly associated" with health issues related to the heart, particularly atrial fibrillation, finding that women may be at a greater risk. The research, published in the European Heart Journal also found working night shifts is linked to an increased risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). “Night shift exposure also increased the risk of CHD (coronary heart disease) but not stroke or HF (heart failure). Whether decreasing night shift work frequency and duration might represent another avenue to improve heart health during working life and beyond warrants further study,” the paper said. Read full story. Source: The Independent, 16 August 2021 -
EventPoor lifestyle choices are leading to a rapid growth in non-communicable diseases, resulting in increased healthcare expenditure, preventable morbidity, and premature deaths. The increasingly sedentary nature of our lifestyles, which can lead to obesity or being overweight, has contributed to growth in the numbers suffering from type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Prevention and effective management of long-term conditions is likely to be more cost effective than treating the illnesses as they occur. This webinar will highlight how behaviour change can reduce the likelihood of becoming obese, becoming type 2 diabetic, or suffering from heart disease. The session will look at recommendations around four key health and wellness pillars; activity, sleep, stress and nutrition and how achieving balance across them can help prevent some non-communicable diseases. It will explore ‘social prescriptions’ and the role they can play to help those at risk of, or suffering from these diseases to actively participate in their own health and care. Additionally, it will consider how remote patient monitoring can help proactively manage these patient populations outside of primary and secondary care environments, reducing the burden on NHS resources. Register
-
News ArticleIt has been recommended by UK researchers that patients, regardless of their metabolic rate, should be given weight management advice as people with obesity were still at risk of diabetes, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. A recent study found that regardless of your metabolic rate, it did not necessarily mean that the patient with obesity were healthy and that doctors should avoid using the term “metabolically healthy obesity” as it could be misleading. Read full story. Source: Nursing Times, 11 June 2021
-
Content ArticleThis report summarises some of the key findings from the full 2020 National Cardiac Audit Programme (NCAP). It provides useful background information and highlights what you can do to help improve cardiac health for you and your friends and family. It includes answers to some frequently asked questions and links to where to go for more information or support.
-
News Article
NHS introduces 3D heart scans to diagnose patients in 20 minutes
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Patients with life-threatening coronary heart disease will be treated five times faster thanks to 3D scans being introduced on the NHS that allow for a diagnosis in just 20 minutes. The revolutionary technology can turn a regular CT scan of the heart into a 3D image, allowing doctors to diagnose them rapidly, NHS England said. It added that about 100,000 people will be eligible to use the HeartFlow technology over the next three years. Patients – who would previously have had to undergo an invasive and time-consuming angiogram in hospital – will now be seen, diagnosed and treated around five times faster. The new technology, introduced from last month, is part of the NHS long-term plan to cut the number of heart attacks and strokes by 150,000. NHS England said more people here will have access to the potentially life-saving technology than anywhere else in Europe, the US or Japan. Matt Whitty, director of innovation and life sciences for NHS England, said HeartFlow had been a “huge success” in clinical trials and would now help “tens of thousands of people a year receive quick diagnosis and treatment and ultimately save lives”. Read full story Source: The Guardian. 4 May 2021 -
Content ArticleThis Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) investigation explores the impact of ambulance delays on the emergency treatment of heart attack. The current preferred model of care in the NHS in England is for patients to receive primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI), a procedure which involves widening a blocked artery and inserting a stent to keep the artery open. The effectiveness of PPCI is dependent on the timescale in which it can be carried out. National figures have identified increasing delays in ambulances taking people with a type of heart attack known as ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) to hospital so that PPCI can be provided within target timescales. This may lead to worse outcomes for these patients. Alternative treatment using thrombolytic medicine (medicines used to dissolve blood clots) is advised where specific timescales for providing PPCI may not be met. This investigation started after a patient notified HSIB of a delay in an ambulance attending him after suffering a heart attack (STEMI).
-
News Article
Covid: 'Sharp drop' in heart-attack hospital admissions
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
There has been a sharp drop in the number of patients admitted to hospitals in England with heart attacks or heart failure in recent months, research reveals. Experts are worried that people who need urgent medical help are not seeking it. This was also the case during the first wave of the pandemic. The researchers included 66 hospitals in the study and compared daily admission rates in the year before the pandemic with those during the first and second waves in England, up to 17 November. During the first lockdown, daily admissions for heart attacks or heart failure decreased by more than 50%. They went up again in the summer, as coronavirus rates decreased in the UK and the NHS became less busy with the virus. From October, when coronavirus cases were rising again, heart admissions began to drop - by between 35% and 41% compared with pre-pandemic data, according to the study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Researcher Prof Chris Gale, from Leeds University, said: "Medical emergencies do not stop in a pandemic. I am afraid that we are seeing a re-run of one of the preventable tragedies of the first wave - people were either too afraid to go to hospital for fear of contracting COVIDd-19 or were not referred for treatment." "The message to patients needs to be clear. If they experience symptoms of a heart attack or acute heart failure, they need to attend hospital." Read full story Source: BBC News, 20 January 2021 -
Content ArticleThe coronavirus has caused significant disruption to NHS services, which may have been particularly felt by those with a long-term condition. Rachel Hutchings takes a closer look at what it’s been like for people living with heart disease, and stresses the importance of understanding patients’ experiences as we head towards winter with a second wave underway.
-
Content Article
The Yentl syndrome is alive and well (March 2011)
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Women's health
More women than men die annually from ischaemic heart disease (IHD) in the developed world. This represents a reversal of fortune from previous decades and places women firmly as the new majority now impacted. Notably, the adverse IHD gender gap is the widest in relatively young women, where myocardial infarction (MI) mortality is 2-fold higher in women under 50 years compared with age-matched men. While it is now clear that there are many gender differences in IHD outcomes, including more frequent angina diagnosis, more office visits, more avoidable hospitalisations, higher MI mortality, and higher rates of heart failure in women compared with men, the aetiologies contributing to these differences are less clear. -
Content ArticleIn this article for Stylist, Sarah Graham, founder of the Hysterical Women blog, looks at the statistics around gender and heart attacks and gender. She highlights the worrying disparities and argues that sexism plays a dangerous role. The term Yentl Syndrome is used to describe the different ways men and women are treated after heart attacks.
-
Content ArticleAll patients with prosthetic mechanical heart valves require life-long oral anticoagulation with a vitamin K antagonist (VKA), usually warfarin, as these valves predispose the patient to systemic embolism. Thrombosis of a prosthetic valve is potentially life-threatening as it can result in haemodynamically severe stenosis or regurgitation and acute heart failure. The risk depends on the type of valve, its position, and other factors. Since 1 March 2020, 14 incidents have been reported of patients with a mechanical heart valve being switched to a a low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) or a direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC); two patients were hospitalised due to valve thrombosis and/or required emergency surgery and one was admitted due to severe anaemia. The reports included cases where patients’ anticoagulation was switched from warfarin in primary and in secondary care.
