The News
Heart failures in hospitalized cardiac patients fall in 6 years
By Lindsey Tanner The Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 05/01/2007 07:48:30 PM MDT
Chicago - In just six years, death rates and heart failure in hospitalized heart-attack patients have fallen sharply, most likely because of better treatment, the largest international study of its kind suggests.
The promising trend parallels the growing use of cholesterol- lowering drugs, powerful blood thinners and angioplasty, the procedure that opens clogged arteries, the researchers said.
"These results are really dramatic, because, in fact, they're the first time anybody has demonstrated a reduction in the development of new heart failure," said Dr. Keith Fox, the lead author and a cardiology professor at the University of Edinburgh.
The six-year study involved nearly 45,000 patients in 14 countries who had major heart attacks or dangerous partial artery blockages. The percentage of patients who died in the hospital or who developed heart failure was cut nearly in half from 1999 to 2005.

The Research
Read the research behind this story in the Journal of the American Medical Association.