Clinical Center Studies Noninvasive Imaging of Heart Failure
Episode # 45
Uploaded: August 26, 2010
Running Time: 4:17
SCHMALFELDT: From the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, this is CLINICAL CENTER RADIO.
Heart failure is a common cardiovascular disorder that becomes more common with age. Researchers at the Clinical Center here at the National Institutes of Health are interested in using noninvasive imaging methods, like MRI, to get a better understanding of the symptoms and effects of heart failure. Dr. David R. Bluemke is director of Radiology and Imaging Sciences at the Clinical Center, and senior investigator at the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and prinicipal investigator of this study.
BLUEMKE: Heart failure is present in about 10 percent of people over 65 years of age, and it's becoming quite common in the U.S. Usually the symptoms that people first start to notice are that they become short of breath, maybe when they walk up the stairs, or their legs start swelling when they are active. In more severe cases, they have difficulty breathing -- even at rest, or especially when lying down at night. This can be due to fluids, for example, that build up in their lungs.
SCHMALFELDT: So, how can the state-of-the-art imaging techniques utilized at the Clinical Center help investigators see whether or not a patient is suffering with heart failure?
BLUEMKE: In patients with heart failure, they get a buildup of scar tissue or "fibrosis" in the heart. Typically the heart, in normal individuals, is a muscle and should be made up of muscle cells, primarily. In patients who have heart failure, usually due to other cardiovascular risk factors, the muscle is replaced by this scar tissue. We've been able to see that scar tissue before, typically associated with a heart attack. If you have an individual patient who had a heart attack, we see a really bright scar in the heart, and we say that part of the heart is dead or damaged. So in heart failure that is due to other causes, the blood flow may be chronically reduced or there may be other reasons for that reduction in flow, but eventually the heart muscle can be replaced by scar that is not only in one portion but can be diffusely spread throughout the entire heart muscle.
SCHMALFELDT: So, by -- for instance -- looking at an MRI image of the heart, clinicians will be able to see heart failure where they couldn't recognize it before?
BLUEMKE: Previously, we have not been able to recognize these grey areas as an abnormality within the heart. Now we have some new methods we're testing to look at people who have not had a heart attack, or some with heart attack who also have this diffuse fibrosis or scar in the heart. The presence of that fibrosis or scar makes the heart very stiff and unable to pump with the same strength and the same amount of blood to the rest of the body, resulting in these symptoms of heart failure.
SCHMALFELDT: Both healthy volunteers and patients with heart failure are being sought for this study. There will be no actual treatment provided, but participants will be given information that they can share with their family health care providers. If you would like more information about this study or one of the 1,500 other studies offered at the NIH Clinical Center, log on to http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov, or e-mail prpl@mail.cc.nih.gov. You may also call our call center toll free at 1-866-999-5553. From America's Clinical Research Hospital, this has been CLINICAL CENTER RADIO. In Bethesda, Maryland, I'm Bill Schmalfeldt at the National Institutes of Health, an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
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