Heart disease is the number one killer of men and women in the United States today. The CDC estimates one in four Americans die from the disease every year.2 However, medical advancements have allowed us to see continued reductions in mortality rates. The mortality rate of heart disease peaked in the 1960s and has decreased significantly since. From 1969 to 2014, overall deaths related to heart disease decreased by approximately 68%. The three main factors which played a role in this reduction are improvements in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
Prevention
Further understanding and implementation of prevention techniques has aided in decreasing the mortality rate.1,3 Heart disease risk can be reduced by avoiding tobacco use, performing daily exercise, consuming a heart healthy diet, reducing alcohol intake, maintaining a healthy weight, getting adequate sleep, and managing stress.
Diagnosis
Advanced tools and knowledge have allowed for earlier diagnosis of heart and cardiovascular diseases (heart attack, arrhythmia, heart valve problems, and stroke). Receiving regular screenings of blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar allows doctors to identify early warning signs and make recommendations to patients on how to avoid more serious problems.
Treatment
Improved treatment options have also helped reduce the mortality rates of heart and other cardiovascular diseases1,3. As researchers learn more about the risks, causes, effects, and relationship between disorders, more effective treatments are created. Studying the relationship between diabetes, cancer, and obesity with heart disease has deepened researchers understanding of the disorders and produced more comprehensive treatments. In addition, proper safety testing of all new therapies significantly reduces the appearance of negative cardiovascular side effects from medication.
DSI products have played a role in improved treatment options. These products can assist researchers in evaluating cardiac function and it’s relationship to other diseases. Through implantable telemetry, users can monitor endpoints such as ventricular pressures, systemic blood pressure, ECG, and blood glucose. These tools are used to evaluate and develop new therapies for heart disease, other cardiovascular diseases, stroke, diabetes, obesity, and more. They are also used in the safety pharmacology phase of drug development to ensure cardiac safety of new therapies entering the market. DSI’s implantable telemetry products have been cited in thousands of publications related to cardiovascular research, particularly as it relates to heart failure and hypertension.
Implantable telemetry is superior to tethered monitoring options in terms of animal welfare and reproducibility as it allows researchers to monitor conscious, freely moving animals in their natural habitat. This results in higher quality physiologic data as animals are behaving normally and are less likely to be stressed. DSI’s PhysioTel™, PhysioTel HD™, and PhysioTel Digital™ implantable telemetry platforms allow for continuous chronic monitoring, providing a full picture of disease and treatment progression.
Despite these advancements, heart disease remains the number one cause of death for both men and women in the United States. DSI is passionate about the continued support of cardiovascular research and treatment. If this cause is close to your heart, we invite you to donate to our American Heart Association fundraising page. We will match all donations made through our page, up to $2000, by February 28th, 2018.
References
1Menash G., Wei G., Sorlie P., Fine L., Rosenberg Y., Kaufmann P., Mussolino M., Hsu L., Addou E., Engelgau M., Gordon D. (2017) Decline in Cardiovascular Mortality. Circulation Research. 120:366-380. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.116.309115.
2Story C., Cherney K. (2016) The history of heart disease. Healthline. Retrieval from http://www.healthline.com/health/heart-disease/history#4
3Weir H., Anderson R., Coleman King S., Soman A., Thompson T., Hong Y., Moller B., Leadbetter S. (2016) Heart Disease and Cancer Deaths — Trends and Projections in the United States, 1969–2020. Prev Chronic Dis 2016;13:160211. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd13.160211.