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.

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)

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

Image via Wikipedia

Salt / Sodium the hooded claw for Heart Failure Patients part 5

Breakfast cereals

Breakfast cereals vary widely in salt content, so read labels carefully. Some of the most popular contain between 250 and 300 milligrams of sodium in a serving, though many people eat double that much at breakfast. And beware the “healthy” label; some of the highest-sodium cereals are those we consider healthiest, such as raisin bran. Kellogg’s Raisin Bran has 340 milligrams per serving ; instant oatmeal has as much as 350 milligrams per serving, depending on the flavor. So READ THE LABEL.

The world’s first wireless heart pacemaker was unveiled Monday. The device dramatically reduces surgical time so reducing cost and the chances of infection.

Andrew Diston, Head of Global Medical Technology at Cambridge Consultants which collaborated with start-up company EBR Systems to develop the system said the device, Wireless Cardiac Stimulation system (WiCS), solves two problems.

“Conventional pacemakers have to have a wire threaded through into the ventricle. That is very hard to place. And secondly we can place the electrode in a much better place and so get better results.” Pacemakers are in two parts, a pulse generator, with its associated power
supply, and an electrode that stimulates the cardiac muscle that is placed in  the heart. Such devices require three leads into the heart, one of which involves painstakingly threading a lead through a difficult and complex route running from the right atrium of the heart, out of the heart and into the coronary sinus, a vasculature structure on the outside surface of the heart to the left ventricle.

Chance of lead failure and infection

A pacemaker/defibrillator device is connected to the leads which are used to sense heart activity and to deliver electrical stimulation through electrodes at the end of the leads. The electrical stimulation applied to the right and to the left ventricles synchronizes the heart’s contraction in a way that improves overall cardiac function in heart failure patients. However, added to the difficulty of the procedure itself is the chance of
lead failure and infection. WiCS uses a lead-less electrode to convert mechanical energy, wirelessly transmitted from an ultrasonic pulse generator, into electrical energy which is used to pace the heart’s left ventricle.

“It is the same technology as was found in an old stylus. We beam the energy using ultrasound. That is picked up in the electrode and using piezo technology, the ultrasound is converted into an electrical signal,” said Mr. Diston.

Hope to get approval in 2012

“Provided you focus the energy onto the electrode it is very efficient.” “The device is currently in clinical trials in a number of places across
Europe,” said Mr. Diston. “They will carry on through 2012. We hope to get approval in 2012 for a European launch, and then will take the technology to America.” This, first generation device, is used to pace the heart as part of Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy. WiCS works in conjunction with a conventional pacemaker/defibrillator, sensing the electrical pacing pulse of the pacemaker from the right ventricle.

Mr. Diston said that future devices would be able to work without a conventional pacemaker being present.

Salt / Sodium the hooded claw for Heart Failure Patients

Hi my name is Chloe I am going to talk to you about the “hooded claw” of the food world for Heart Failure Patients. Over the next week or so you will find information that is crucial to managing salt intake for Heart Failure patients.

Reducing salt intake for Heart Failure Patients

A big thank you

Pumping Marvellous raised over £1000 in 24hrs at Asda Walmart in Accrington and a big thank you to the customers who gave so generously towards helping Heart Failure patients. A big thank you goes to Angela Spencer who brought her crew down to help raise money. A big thanks to our Trustees who attended and packed bags for customers and Alexa and Laura from the Hyndburn Healthy Lifestyle Team who gave great advice to customers on the benefits of eating good healthy food and exercising regulary. Thanks to Natalie at the Lancashire and Cumbria Cardiac and Stroke Networkwho came down to support us and all the others who popped in and gave us some of there time and support. Our next fundraising event is on the 2nd and 3rd of December. Details will follow shortly. Here is your gold star, well done.

Gold Star to you from Pumping Marvellous