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February 2016 | Read this issue and more at www.healthandwellnessmagazine.net |
New Treatments for
Heart Disease
FDA approves new drugs
By Angela S. Hoover, Staff Writer
Two new drugs for the treatment
of heart disease and related conditions are helping subsets of the nearly
27 million Americans with heart
disease live longer and with fewer
hospital admittances. About 610,000
individuals die from heart disease in
the United States, according to the
Centers for Disease Control. This
equates to one in every four deaths.
Heart attacks, high blood pressure
and other diseases can weaken the
heart muscle and cause congestive
heart failure, in which the heart muscle fails to forcefully pump blood to
the body’s tissues. Symptoms include
shortness of breath and fatigue. Heart
failure is the most common reason for
hospitalization for Medicare patients.
About 5.7 million Americans have
heart failure. Of these, about 2.2 million are diagnosed as New York Heart
Association (NYHA) class II-IV,
which means their capacities for daily
living are more severely limited.
The Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) approved the
Novartis drug Entresto (LCZ696)
for this subset of heart failure patients
last July. In a clinical trial (ParadigmHF), the drug was highly effective,
with a 20-percent reduction in death
or repeat hospitalization compared
to current therapies. Traditionally, 20
percent or more patients are r