Pumping Marvellous

The Pumping Marvellous treatment…

A fitting crescendo to Heart Month

Pumping Marvellous are very focused around children and young people getting the right education on healthy lifestyles and delivering in a way they enjoy and learn but also having big fun doing it. That’s why we have just added a new “string to our bow” for the charity called Heart Stars, this is still in development but will be ready to launch very soon headed up by a very special young lady Mirren Terry. Coming to your screens as promised!

In our commitment to ensuring children and young people start their lives with the best possible education we have teamed up with on Wednesday 29th February 2012 the East Lancashire Hospital Trusts Heart Failure Nursing Team under the direction of Angela Graves and the Blackburn with Darwen Health Teams under the direction of Mark Campbell to have a day of fun filled education with the children of the Infants and Juniors of The Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Blackburn. We will be educating the children about the Heart and its function, exercise and it’s impact on the heart and the importance of healthy food.

Not only will the children be actively involved all day they will also have some homework pre the event which will include the infants trying to name 10 correct fruit and vegeatable which they will learn before their fun filled day and the juniors answering a questionnaire on how much they know about the heart and the affects of nutrition and exercise. Whilst answering the questions both the infants and juniors will gather sponsorships which will be based on how many they can get correct by the 29th February 2012.
Mums or Dads can also win a full week of juice detox from Soulmatefood one of our corporate sponsors.

Collections on the day will go to the “Heart of Blackburn” 3D scanner appeal. Monies collected through the sponsorship forms will go to your local Heart Failure Chairty Pumping Marvellous.

Eat FRESH and manage that SODIUM

This is an excellent piece of advice from Donna Arnett president elect of the American Heart Association. In the excerpt it talks about sodium so what you need to know is the calcualtion that works this through to Salt. Here is the calculation –

“A healthy diet sustains us, but a poor diet can lead to increased blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar levels and weight and put you at heart disease risk.

According to Donna Arnett, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Epidemiology in the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health and president-elect of the American Heart Association, diet is only ‘one component of the overall cause of heart disease.’ But, Arnett asserted that it can exert a strong influence.

Sodium also is considered the culprit for the one in three Americans who develop high blood pressure. Sodium attracts water into your cells; the increased fluid raises your blood pressure and subsequently raises your risk of stroke and heart attack, heart failure and death, Arnett says.

Race also plays a role in risk. UAB researchers recently examined the effects of sodium intake by race using data from the ongoing Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke and found a stronger association with death in black participants than whites, says Suzanne Judd, assistant professor of biostatistics at UAB and the study’s lead author.

Blacks with the highest sodium intake (average of 2,600 mg/day) had a 62 percent increased risk of dying, while whites had no increased risk, she said. “This supports the AHA recommendation that there may need to be race-specific sodium guidelines, but everyone should reduce their sodium intake,” Judd says. The AHA has an aggressive sodium goal of 1,500 mg per day for everyone.

First, Arnett said, increase the amount of fruits and vegetables you eat daily, especially the leafy kind. “This provides more potassium, which is associated with lower blood pressure,” Arnett said.

“Fresh is the best source for fruits and vegetables, but canned versions can provide nutrition.” The primary drawback to canned and frozen foods is added sodium. But Arnett offers a solution: “Rinse these foods before cooking to help reduce sodium. Once rinsed, I think they are a great option for people on the go.” Fish also is on Arnett’s list of better food choices. “You should eat fish twice per week; fish are sources of the good fats associated with reduced risk of heart disease,” said Arnett.

When preparing your food, limit saturated fats such as those in butter, hard cheeses and red meats. “Avoid trans fats because they raise your bad cholesterol levels. So read food labels and look for partially hydrogenated oils, which is another name for trans fats,” Arnett says. Fats considered to be suitable for low consumption ? avocados, nuts, olives and olive oil ? are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, which can help reduce the cholesterol levels in your blood and lower your risk of heart disease.

A big calorie-causing culprit is fizzy drinks and sports and energy drinks, Arnett says. “The hidden sugars in these beverages are a common cause of weight gain among young people. Limiting yourself to two 12 oz. cans per week to reduce the risk of obesity and diabetes,” Arnett added.” end

Heart Repair Shop

Stem cells grown from patients’ own cardiac tissue can heal damage once thought to be permanent after a heart attack, according to a study that suggests the experimental approach may one day help stave off heart failure.

In a trial of 25 heart-attack patients, 17 who got the stem cell treatment showed a 50 percent reduction in cardiac scar tissue compared with no improvement for the eight who received standard care. The results, from the first of three sets of clinical trials generally needed for regulatory approval, were published today in the medical journal Lancet.

“The findings in this paper are encouraging,” Deepak Srivastava, director of the San Francisco-based Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, said in an interview. “There’s a dire need for new therapies for people with heart failure”

The study, by researchers from Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, tested the approach in patients who recently suffered a heart attack, with the goal that repairing the damage might help stave off failure. While patients getting the stem cells showed no more improvement in heart function than those who didn’t get the experimental therapy, the theory is that new tissue regenerated by the stem cells can strengthen the heart, said Eduardo Marban, the study’s lead author.

“What our trial was designed to do is to reverse the injury once it’s happened,” said Marban, director of Cedars- Sinai Heart Institute. “The quantitative outcome that we had in this paper is to shift patients from a high-risk group to a low- risk group.”

Minimally Invasive

The stem cells were implanted within five weeks after patients suffering heart attacks. Doctors removed heart tissue, about the size of half a raisin, using a minimally invasive procedure that involved a thin needle threaded through the veins. After cultivating the stem cells from the tissue, doctors reinserted them using a second minimally invasive procedure. Patients got 12.5 million cells to 25 million cells.

A year after the procedure, six patients in the stem cell group had serious side effects, including a heart attack, chest pain, a coronary bypass, implantation of a defibrillator, and two other events unrelated to the heart. One of patient’s side effects were possibly linked to the treatment, the study found.

While the main goal of the trial was to examine the safety of the procedure, the decrease in scar tissue in those treated merits a larger study that focuses on broader clinical outcomes, researchers said in the paper.

Heart Regeneration

“If we can regenerate the whole heart, then the patient would be completely normal,” Marban said. “We haven’t fulfilled that yet, but we’ve gotten rid of half of the injury, and that’s a good start.”

While the study resulted in patients having an increase in muscle mass and a shrinkage of scar size, the amount of blood flowing out of the heart, or the ejection fraction, wasn’t different between the control group and stem-cell therapy group. The measurement is important because poor blood flow deprives the body of oxygen and nutrients it needs to function properly, Srivastava said.

“The patients don’t have a functional benefit in this study,” said Srivastava, who wasn’t not involved in the trial. The technology is being developed by closely held Capricor Inc., which will further test it in 200 patients for the second of three trials typically required for regulatory approval.

Celebration over a service that should be standard

After reading this commentary below from this is Bath we are surprised and concerned with the slant of this article as it seems as though there has been some ground breaking progress made with the availability of the BNP test when the BNP test (Brain natriuretic peptide) should be made available across all areas of the UK. We are however pleased that this seems to be an initiative made by GP’s. Taking a neutral stance but is this the sort of spin we should expect from the “New NHS?” We also hope that the implementers below realise that if the reading is above 400 then this should mean an automatic referral for an Echo-cardiogram within 2-3 weeks of the results via NICE guidelines which will ultimately put strain on the Hospital Services. Lets hope they have planned well. Although you do wonder who wrote this as ECG doesn’t mean an Echo-Cardiogram??!

Article - published by “this is Bath” (visit the publication at this is bath)

–GP’s who are taking the reins of the NHS in Bath have revamped heart treatment to save patients from undergoing unnecessary hospital scans. The new venture will see patients with symptoms of heart failure being offered a blood test at their GP surgery instead of being automatically referred to the Royal United Hospital.

Blood will be analysed for an enzyme which is only present if the muscles of the wall of the heart are put under significant strain. Patients get their results within 48 hours, and only if the blood test is positive are they now referred to the RUH for an echo-cardiogram (ECG).

This will save people from an unnecessary hospital scan and an anxious wait, and is likely to save the NHS locally up to £60,000 a year through better use of resources. RUH clinical lead in cardiology Dr Jacob Easaw and Dr Ruth Grabham from Newbridge Surgery worked closely together to create the new service.

Dr Grabham is the clinical director of the new clinical commissioning group, which will take over local health and care planning from the NHS B&NES primary care trust when it is abolished in April next year. She said: “We want to use this opportunity of clinically-led commissioning to improve services for patients.

“This new pathway for diagnosing heart failure will significantly reduce anxiety for a lot of patients. Now, a simple blood test could rule out the problem in a matter of days. A blood test is also much cheaper than a hospital outpatient appointment, so this new service shows it is possible to change services, improve patient experience and save money all at the same time.” Dr Easaw said: “This partnership will lead to improved early diagnosis of heart failure, and this means as cardiac specialists we can focus more of our attention and resources on those patients who need our skills the most.

“We will see high-risk patients earlier than in the past which means treatment can be more effective. It also avoids unnecessary scans and worries for those people who the blood test shows do not have heart failure.”

The change is the first significant local effect of the shake-up about to take place in the running of the NHS. Although many bodies representing clinicians across the NHS are deeply concerned about the Government’s Health Bill, the new commissioning group says getting GPs more involved in prioritising care makes sense.– (finish)

Crescendo to Heart Month

In our commitment to ensuring children and young people start their lives with the best possible education we have teamed up with on Wednesday 29th February 2012 the East Lancashire Hospital Trusts Heart Failure Nursing Team under the direction of Angela Graves and the Blackburn with Darwen Health Teams under the direction of Mark Campbell to have a day of fun filled education with the children of the Infants and Juniors of The Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in Blackburn. We will be educating the children about the Heart and its function, exercise and it’s impact on the heart and the importance of healthy food.

Not only will the children be actively involved all day they will also have some homework pre the event which will include the infants trying to name 10 correct fruit and vegeatable which they will learn before their fun filled day and the juniors answering a questionnaire on how much they know about the heart and the affects of nutrition and exercise. Whilst answering the questions both the infants and juniors will gather sponsorships which will be based on how many they can get correct by the 29th February 2012.

Collections on the day will go to the “Heart of Blackburn” 3D scanner appeal. Monies collected through the sponsorship forms will go to your local Heart Failure Chairty Pumping Marvellous.

One of our corporate sponsors Soulmatefood will also be offering a “pulled out the hat” prize for one of the parents for a full juice detox worth £200 – nothing like influencing upwards.

The event will be covered by the BBC and the Lancashire Evening Telegraph so we hope people will read and listen to the childrens achievements. We are quite happy to do this sort of event at your school so why don’t you contact us to discuss your requirements. Currently only available in the Lancashire area.

This is a series of videos by the British Red Cross on basic first aid. We are also running with conjunction with the British Red Cross free courses for Heart Failure Patients and their Carers. We will be posting the dates for the training shortly.

Heart Attack

Pumping Marvellous at the BBC

Nick and Shakil two of the trustees at Pumping Marvellous talk to Talat on the BBC, broadcasting out to Radio Manchester and Radio Lancashire.

Here is the iPlayer link for the interview

Heart Failure is discussed live on air at the BBC

We have been saying for a long time that our patients are feeding back to us that their short term memory has been affected since being diagnosed with Heart Failure. We are pleased to see that research has proved their assumptions to be correct.

Heart failure is associated with a decline in mental processes and a loss of grey matter in the brain, new research has found. Scientists at the University of Western Australia say the changes could make it harder for people with heart failure to remember their medication and follow the instructions correctly.
The researchers performed cognitive tests and MRI scans on 35 patients with heart failure, 56 patients with ischaemic heart disease and 64 healthy volunteers. They found that people with heart failure tended to have worse immediate and long-term memory and reaction speeds than healthy people.Heart failure patients also showed changes in areas of the brain that play a role in cognitive and emotional processing.
Professor Osvaldo Almeida said: ‘What we found in this study is that both ischaemic heart disease and heart failure are associated with a loss of cells in certain brain regions that are important for the modulation of emotions and mental activity. ‘Such a loss is more pronounced in people with heart failure, but can also be seen in people with ischaemic heart disease without heart failure.’
The findings are published in the European Heart Journal and could have important implications, as figures from the British Heart Foundation suggest there are more than 27,000 new cases of heart failure each year in the UK.

These are the key findings from the National Heart Failure Audit 2010-2011. The information below indicates the findings of the Audit and key findings.
Between April 2010 and March 2011, 133 out of 156 (85%) NHS Trusts and Welsh Health Boards participated in the audit and submitted data on 36,504 patient records. This is a 71% increase in the number of records collected from 2009/2010.
• Nationally the audit represents approximately 54% of all patients discharged from hospital with a primary discharge diagnosis of heart failure – this is an improvement in case ascertainment from 42% of all patients represented in the 2009/10 audit. However, case ascertainment differs significantly between England (58%) and Wales (7%) and also between individual Trusts
• Data completeness for core fields achieved similarly high rates as in 2009/10.
• Treatment rates at discharge for contemporary disease modifying therapies are similar to last year.
• Treatment rates for diuretics (86%) and angiotensin- converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) (81%) remain high.
• Beta blocker prescription rates are similar to those of last year (65%). This is still suboptimal.
• Only 36% of patients were prescribed aldosterone receptor antagonists (ARA).
• Treatment rates for ACE inhibitors/ARBs and beta blockers are significantly better when patients are admitted to cardiology rather than general medical wards.
• Mortality rates remain high, with 33% of patients in the audit dead at the end of the follow up period (median follow up of 306 days).
• In hospital mortality rates were at 11.6%, higher than in contemporary US and European registries.
• The overall death and/or readmission rate to hospital with heart failure during the period of the audit was 51%, almost identical to last year’s data.
• In-patient mortality rates are better for those admitted to cardiology wards (8%) compared to those in general medical wards (14%) and other wards (17%), figures which are only partly accounted for by known confounders such as age and co-morbidity.
• Mortality rates after discharge are significantly better for those who receive cardiology follow up (18% vs. 31%) and those referred to heart failure specialist nursing services (22% vs. 27%) compared to those who do not. Again these differences are not solely due to differences in patient characteristics.
• Mortality rates with key medical treatment (ACE Inhibitors/ ARBs, beta blockers, ARAs) are substantially lower than without such therapy. Access to these drugs is higher for patients admitted to cardiology ward.

You can read the full Audit here – Heart Failure Audit 2010-2011

This is a series of videos by the British Red Cross on basic first aid. We are also running with conjunction with the British Red Cross free courses for Heart Failure Patients and their Carers. We will be posting the dates for the training shortly.

Stroke