Why heart failure research is vitally important

Contributed by Julie Penfold.

Around 920,000 people have a diagnosis of heart failure in the UK. Living with a diagnosis of heart failure can be incredibly challenging. It is a long-term condition where the heart has been damaged and does not pump blood through the body as well as it should. This can lead to a number of symptoms including breathlessness, extreme fatigue, fluid retention, chronic wheezing or cough, and confusion.

When you take part in a clinical trial, you are assisting in the essential research of new medications and treatments for devastating long-term conditions such as heart failure. If you are currently living with heart failure, your participation in clinical trials could help to further vital drug treatment development.

What researchers learn from your experiences of how a study drug affects your body is a crucial first step in developing new treatments for heart failure.

Heart failure management – the need for more research

“Current heart failure management is mostly focused on managing people’s symptoms, for example, using diuretics (water pills) to help with excess fluid,” explains a doctor who is currently involved in this type of research. “This helps the heart pump more effectively and hopefully improves the life of the person taking them. However, though a lot of drugs used to manage heart failure have positive effects on heart remodeling after a heart attack, there is still NO breakthrough drug that has revolutionized treatment.