title: Devices in heart failure: potential methods for device-based monitoring of congestive heart failure.
abstract: Congestive heart failure has long been one of the most serious medical conditions in the United States; in fact, in the United States alone, heart failure accounts for 6.5 million days of hospitalization each year. One important goal of heart-failure therapy is to inhibit the progression of congestive heart failure through pharmacologic and device-based therapies. Therefore, there have been efforts to develop device-based therapies aimed at improving cardiac reserve and optimizing pump function to meet metabolic requirements. The course of congestive heart failure is often worsened by other conditions, including new-onset arrhythmias, ischemia and infarction, valvulopathy, decompensation, end-organ damage, and therapeutic refractoriness, that have an impact on outcomes. The onset of such conditions is sometimes heralded by subtle pathophysiologic changes, and the timely identification of these changes may promote the use of preventive measures. Consequently, device-based methods could in the future have an important role in the timely identification of the subtle pathophysiologic changes associated with congestive heart failure.
authors.affiliation: Atherosclerosis Research Department, Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Houston, Texas 77030, USA. shahzeb.sial@gmail.com
authors.forename: Shahzeb M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Munir
authors.forename: Roberta C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Bogaev
authors.forename: Ed
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sobash
authors.forename: K J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Shankar
authors.forename: Sreedevi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gondi
authors.forename: Igor V
authors.initials: IV
authors.lastname: Stupin
authors.forename: Jillian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Robertson
authors.forename: M Alan
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Brewer
authors.forename: S Ward
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Casscells
authors.forename: Reynolds M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Delgado
authors.forename: Amany
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ahmed
mesh_terms: D017147:Defibrillators, Implantable; D003935:Diagnostic Techniques, Cardiovascular / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000295:instrumentation; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests