You may know someone who suffers from heart failure, a condition that occurs when the pumping action of the heart is considered lower than normal. Next week, Tuesday and Wednesday (August 22 and 23), UI Heart and Vascular Center will offer the Iowa City community an opportunity to experience literally what the disorder feels like. Frances Johnson, MD, medical director of the Heart Failure Treatment Program at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics says heart failure is very prevalent. "Approximately five million Americans suffer from heart failure today, and an additional 550,000 new cases are diagnosed each year in the United States. A person who lives to the age of forty has a one in five chance of developing heart failure in their lifetime.
"Heart failure can affect people of all ages and backgrounds. The diagnosis describes a general condition in which the heart doesn't function well enough to meet the body's demand for circulating oxygen and nutrients during exercise, or in severe forms, even at rest.
"This condition is caused by many underlying disease states that afflict people at different times of life and a different frequency. The most common cause of heart failure in the United States is coronary artery disease and the heart attacks that result from the blockage of arteries with cholesterol plaque," she says. "This occurs most often in men over the age of 50 and women over 60. Although men have heart attacks at a younger age, women are actually more likely to die of heart disease than their male counterparts.
"The standard treatment for heart failure is medication taken on a daily basis combined with changes in diet and exercise. These measures markedly increase the both lifespan and quality of life of people with this condition.
"Severe forms of heart failure that no longer respond to medical therapy alone may be treated with implantable devices and/or surgical treatments and such pacemakers, defibrillators, heart transplantation, or surgically implanted blood pumps."
UI Hospitals and Clinics will host a mobile heart failure simulator built by AstraZeneca called the Heart Fx Pod. This unit is housed in a semi truck and consists of individual simulator booths employing a special strap-in seat, video, and sound. It's a bit like going to a mini I-max Theatre
The truck will be in the parking lot of the Iowa Athletics Hall of Fame, on the corner of Melrose Avenue and Mormon Trek Boulevard. The entrance to the Hall of Fame is on Mormon Trek.
It will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, August 22, and Wednesday, August 23.
Participants will take a seat in a simulator booth equipped with foot pedals and chest straps that exert mild rhythmic pressure on the chest while they pedal and watch a video depicting the thoughts and feelings a heart failure patient might have at that level of exertion.
"This is a very safe experience for a generally healthy person," she says. "Participants will be asked to fill out a five-question questionnaire before using the simulator to screen people for illnesses which might make the simulator too uncomfortable for them."
On Tuesday night, there will be a dinner presentation on heart failure treatment for physicians. On Wednesday from 1 to 3:30 p.m., we will host a symposium open to the public entitled "Living with Heart Failure". This program will offer information on standard and emerging treatments for heart failure and it will also provide information about what people can do to live longer and better lives with this condition. |
