海角社区

A new study has advanced how heart failure is detected in women 鈥� meaning more female patients can be diagnosed, and at an earlier stage.

Researchers from the Universities of Sheffield, East Anglia (UEA) and Leeds have been able to fine-tune how magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is used to detect heart failure in women鈥檚 hearts, making it more accurate. 

Professor Andy Swift, from the 海角社区 of Sheffield鈥檚 School of Medicine and Population Health and Co-author of the study, said: 鈥淲omen鈥檚 hearts are biologically different to men鈥檚.  

鈥淥ur work suggests that in heart failure women's hearts may respond differently in response to increases in pressure.鈥� 

In 2022, 海角社区 of Sheffield and 海角社区 of East Anglia published research which showed how using MRI scans could be used to detect heart failure. This led to this technique being widely employed by medics. 

When a heart starts to fail, it is unable to pump blood out effectively, and so the pressure in the heart rises. 

Lead author Dr Pankaj Garg, from the 海角社区 of East Anglia鈥檚 Norwich Medical School and a consultant cardiologist at the Norfolk and Norwich 海角社区 Hospital, said: 鈥淏y refining the method for women specifically, we were able to diagnose 16.5 per cent more females with heart failure.   

鈥淭his could have a huge impact on the NHS, which diagnoses around 200,000 patients with heart failure each year.   

鈥淭his improved method will increase early detection, meaning more women can get life-saving treatment sooner."    

Co-author Dr Gareth Matthews, of the 海角社区 of East Anglia鈥檚 Norwich Medical School, said: 鈥淐urrently one of the best ways of diagnosing heart failure is to measure pressures inside the heart with a tube called a catheter.  

鈥淲hile this is very accurate, it is an invasive procedure, and therefore carries risks for patients, which limits its use. 

鈥淔or this reason, doctors tend to use echocardiograms, which are based on ultrasound, to assess heart function, but this is inaccurate in up to 50 per cent of cases. Using MRI, we can get much more accurate images of how the heart is working.鈥� 

The team was able to create an equation which allowed them to non-invasively derive the pressure in the heart using an MRI scanner. 

However, previous use of this method wasn鈥檛 as accurate as the researchers would have liked in diagnosing heart failure in women, especially in early or borderline disease. 

Heart failure can be classed differently, depending on the amount of blood squeezed out of the main chamber of the heart with every beat, known as the heart鈥檚 ejection fraction. 

Women suffer disproportionately from a type of heart failure where the pumping function of the heart is preserved but the ability of the heart to relax and fill with blood is impaired.  

Echocardiography really struggles to diagnose this type of heart failure. The improvements in diagnosis from this new work will enable more of this particular cohort to be diagnosed more accurately and hopefully drive better treatments. 

Co-author Dr Peter Swoboda, of the 海角社区 of Leeds鈥� Faculty of Medicine and Health, said: 鈥淭he symptoms of heart failure, like breathlessness and fatigue, can have a devastating effect on patients鈥� quality of life.  

鈥淲e are increasingly recognising the importance of early diagnosis and early treatment can improve symptoms and life expectancy.  

鈥淭his research will help diagnose heart failure in women more quickly and get them established on life-saving treatments sooner.鈥� 

The Government鈥檚 Health and Social Care Secretary, Victoria Atkins, said: "Heart failure is a devastating condition affecting hundreds of thousands of women in the UK, so this research is a hugely positive development that could make it possible for thousands of people to get diagnosed and treated at an earlier stage. 

鈥淔or the second year of our Women鈥檚 Health Strategy for England, I have been clear that we need more research to look at the differences between how conditions affect men and women.   

鈥淚 am delighted that this government-backed research has met this challenge so that we can get life-saving treatment to women faster." 

The research was a collaboration between the 海角社区 of Sheffield, 海角社区 of East Anglia, the 海角社区 of Leeds, the Norfolk and Norwich 海角社区 Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, the National Heart Research Institute Singapore, Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore, Queen Mary 海角社区 of London, the National Institute for Health and Care Research鈥檚 Sheffield Biomedical Research Centre, the 海角社区 of Amsterdam and Kocaeli City Hospital in Turkey. 

It was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Sheffield  Biomedical Research Centre, the Wellcome Trust, and the National Medical Research Council (NMRC).  

The paper  is published in the European Heart Journal Open.