Pulmonary Congestion

MISSION, Kan., Oct. 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- (Family Features) It doesn't take much for cold and flu symptoms to take over. Even a mild case of the sniffles can make it difficult to navigate the demands of everyday life. It's virtually impossible to avoid germs altogether, but you can make sure you're ready to fight off an infection, whether it's a minor cold or a full-blown case of the flu. Continue Reading Photo courtesy of Shutterstock Photo courtesy of Shutterstock "I always share a few easy and simple methods with my patients when cold and flu season comes back around to keep them in the best shape," said Dr. Tim Tiutan, board-certified internal medicine physician. "Not only does getting ahead offer protection, but knowing what to do when symptoms start to come on, and what to have in your medicine cabinet, can help ease the burden of an oncoming illness." Preparation and prevention play important roles before a bug hits, but it's also valuable to know how to effectively treat an illness and keep your loved ones from getting sick. Prevent Short of stashing yourself away in a bubble, there aren't many failsafe ways to fully avoid germs. However, some basic hygiene and preventive care can go a long way toward minimizing your risk. Regularly washing your hands can help get rid of germs before you accidentally introduce them to your eyes, mouth or nose. Be especially diligent after spending time in crowded places. Maintaining an overall healthy lifestyle also helps ensure you're in optimal condition if you do get sick. That means eating a nutritious, well-rounded diet and keeping up with your exercise routine. Also be sure to talk to your doctor or pharmacist about getting a flu shot; while it may not fully prevent you from getting sick, in most cases it helps your body fight back and keeps your symptoms manageable. Prepare Knowing you can't completely eliminate your exposure to germs, it's a good idea to ensure you have everything you need to fight a cold or flu on hand. At least once a year, give your medicine cabinet a thorough cleaning. Discard any expired medications and replace products that have run low, especially those designed to help fight symptoms like pain relievers, fever reducers, decongestants, antihistamines and cough syrups. It's also a good time to restock items like tissues, cough drops, hand sanitizer and antibacterial soap. Medical supplies like thermometers and humidifiers also come in handy when you're under the weather; check to be sure yours are in good working order and consider adding any supplies you don't already have, such as a blood pressure cuff or home oximeter. Treat Once you're sick, sleep is one of the best remedies. Your body can redirect energy toward healing when you're sleeping, which helps boost your immune system, so give yourself permission to rest when you're feeling down. In addition to getting enough rest, it's important to treat your symptoms, not just mask them. Because symptoms like fever, runny nose, chest congestion, cough and more can indicate a more serious problem, finding the root cause of the symptoms can be a more effective treatment strategy. For example, some common remedies for chest congestion only mask the symptoms. Many doctors recommend an option like Mucinex 12-Hour because it treats the cause of chest congestion by thinning and loosening excess mucus. One dose lasts up to 12 hours, helping you clear mucus and relieve chest congestion. Contain Getting rest and managing your symptoms are easier when you stay at home, but it's also the best way to prevent spreading germs to others. It's not always practical, but if you can, limit yourself to one area of the house, away from family members. Cough into your elbow or a tissue, never your hands. Use antibacterial hand sanitizer and wipe down surfaces to minimize others' contact with your germs. Be especially wary of spending time with anyone who has a compromised immune system while you're contagious, including those with pre-existing conditions, older adults and pregnant women. Take advantage of delivery or curbside services for essentials like groceries and talk with your employer about working remotely or using sick time until you're feeling better. Find more advice to help fight this cold and flu season at Mucinex.com. When to Call for Help if You're Feeling Lousy If you're experiencing cold symptoms, you might wonder when it's appropriate to see a doctor for further evaluation. While most colds resolve on their own within a week or two, there are certain instances when seeking medical attention is advisable. High Fever: If your fever persists for more than three days or reaches 102 F or higher, consult a health care provider. Persistent or Severe Headaches: If you experience persistent or severe headaches that are not alleviated by over-the-counter medication, it's advisable to consult a health care provider, as this could indicate a more serious underlying issue. Persistent Symptoms: If your symptoms worsen or don't improve after a week, seek medical advice. Unusual Symptoms: If you experience uncommon or concerning symptoms during a cold, such as extreme fatigue, confusion, dehydration or a high fever that doesn't respond to treatment, consult your doctor promptly for a proper diagnosis and treatment plan. Trouble Breathing: Difficulty breathing, chest pain or wheezing can indicate a more severe respiratory condition and warrant medical attention. High-Risk Individuals: For individuals at high risk of complications from colds, such as pregnant women, the elderly or individuals with conditions like diabetes or heart disease, it's important to seek advice early to prevent any potential complications. Remember, your health care provider can offer guidance tailored to your specific situation, helping you manage your cold effectively and ensure optimal recovery. Michael French [email protected] 1-888-824-3337 editors.familyfeatures.com About Family Features Editorial Syndicate A leading source for high-quality food, lifestyle and home and garden content, Family Features provides readers with topically and seasonally relevant tips, takeaways, information, recipes, videos, infographics and more. Find additional articles and information at Culinary.net and eLivingToday.com. 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A multicenter study has identified a potential new treatment for acute heart failure, a leading cause of hospitalization and death. A multicenter study led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy in Nashville has identified a potential new treatment for acute heart failure, a leading cause of hospitalization and death. The drug, dapagliflozin, was initially approved for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes, but it since has been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization for heart failure and death in patients with serious health problems that include heart and chronic kidney disease and heightened cardiovascular risk. Reporting this month in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the researchers found that dapagliflozin also benefits patients after admission to the hospital for acute heart failure. The drug improves diuresis, the elimination of excess fluid from the lungs, thereby relieving congestion, and it can reduce hospital stays. "We demonstrated safety and efficacy of initiating dapagliflozin within the first day of hospitalization for acute heart failure," said the paper's first author, Zachary Cox, PharmD, professor of Pharmacy Practice at Lipscomb University. This "will have international impact on the treatment of acute heart failure." Each year 800,000 patients with acute heart failure are admitted to U.S. hospitals from emergency rooms. These patients are at high risk for prolonged hospital stays and death. The annual cost of treating acute heart failure in the United States is estimated to exceed $34 billion. Diuretics are administered to most patients with acute heart failure to improve symptoms and lung congestion caused by fluid buildup. However, the optimal approach to diuretic therapy in patients hospitalized for acute heart failure remains poorly defined and contributes to prolonged inpatient stays and high death and readmission rates. Furthermore, many patients do not respond to diuretics, and about half of patients are discharged with persistent congestion. This can result in patients returning to the hospital soon after discharge and being readmitted for further heart failure therapy. Dapagliflozin is a sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor that acts on the kidneys to increase the removal of sodium and glucose from the body. In April 2020, VUMC began a randomized, clinical trial of the drug in patients hospitalized with acute heart failure. The study was designed by VUMC's JoAnn Lindenfeld, MD, and Sean Collins, MD, MSc, and by Cox, a member of VUMC's heart failure research team. Lindenfeld, professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology, is nationally known for her innovative contributions to the field of heart failure. Collins, professor of Emergency Medicine, directs the Center for Emergency Care Research and Innovation (CERI), a national leader in emergency care research, co-directs the Vanderbilt Coordinating Center, which supports VUMC-led clinical research, and is associate director for clinical trials research in the Vanderbilt Institute for Medicine and Public Health. Cox is a fellow of the Heart Failure Society of America who has published extensively in the field. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, which reached its crescendo in the middle of the study, the researchers were able to enroll 240 patients and complete the trial, "thanks to the diligent effort and collaboration between the CERI research team, and … the departments of emergency medicine and cardiology," Cox said. "This unique partnership allows VUMC to conduct trials in acute heart failure that are only possible in a small number of medical centers across the world," he said. The trial "really highlights the novelty of our Emergency Medicine infrastructure, and why we are a leader in designing and conducting highly impactful clinical trials such as this one," Collins added. Patients were enrolled at five sites in addition to VUMC: TriStar Centennial Medical Center and Ascension St. Thomas Hospital West in Nashville, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, and INTEGRIS Health Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City. Within 24 hours of admission for acute heart failure, patients were randomized to receive either dapagliflozin or conventional diuretic treatment. While early administration of dapagliflozin did not improve weight-based diuretic efficiency compared to conventional treatment, patients who received the drug experienced no increase in adverse events, required shorter periods of IV diuresis, and were discharged faster during the five-day study period. The trial demonstrated the safety and efficacy of starting a drug during early hospitalization that will continue to be prescribed upon discharge to help achieve optimal outpatient therapy and reduce the likelihood of readmission. "It is a way to both improve diuresis AND get a head start on implementing Guideline Directed Medical Therapy in patients with acute heart failure," Lindenfeld said. Other VUMC co-authors are Cathy Jenkins, MS, and Frank Harrell Jr., PhD, Department of Biostatistics, and Christina Kampe, MAcc, Karen Miller, RN, MPA, and William Stubblefield, MD, MPH, Department of Emergency Medicine. The study was an investigator-initiated trial funded by AstraZeneca but independently conducted by VUMC investigators. Dapagliflozin is marketed under the brand name FARXIGA. Acute heart failure research at VUMC is supported in part by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

Results presented at ACC.24 showed that overall neutral results were due to directionally opposite effects in patients with reduced vs. preserved left ventricular ejection fraction Heart failure patients with reduced ejection (HFrEF) had 45% fewer adverse cardiovascular events, whereas patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) had more adverse cardiovascular events with shunting No procedure- or device-related major adverse cardiovascular or neurological events (MACNE) were reported in patients throughout the duration of the study to 24 months AGOURA HILLS, Calif., April 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- V-Wave Inc., a privately held medical device company, today announced primary results from the RELIEVE-HF pivotal trial (NCT03499236) of its Ventura® Interatrial Shunt. The study evaluated patients with advanced heart failure (HF) and any left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) who were at high risk for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality events. The trial was designed as a multicenter, double-blind, randomized, controlled study in which patients were assigned 1:1 to receive either the interatrial shunt device or a control placebo procedure. Patients and caregivers were blinded to treatment assignment for the duration of the study up to 2 years. To be eligible, patients were required to have multiple risk factors for poor outcomes and be symptomatic despite treatment with maximally tolerated guideline-directed medical and device therapies. The study was performed under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Breakthrough Devices Program and randomized 508 patients at 94 hospitals in 11 countries, including the U.S., EU, Israel, Australia and New Zeeland. A supermajority (96%) of the patients were highly disabled with New York Heart Association (NYHA) Class III symptoms. Randomization was stratified so that the 206 patients with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF; LVEF ≤40%) and 302 patients with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF; LVEF >40%) were equally assigned to shunt or control treatment. It was pre-specified that each LVEF subgroup would be analyzed separately if results differed in the two subgroups. The trial met its primary safety endpoint. There were no (0%) major adverse cardiovascular or neurological events (MACNE) during the first 30 days and no such events to 24 months. All 250 (100%) patients assigned to receive a shunt did so successfully. Overall, the primary effectiveness endpoint was neutral, neither showing shunt-related benefit or harm. Analysis of the LVEF subgroups showed this was due to directionally opposite effects in the HFrEF vs. HFpEF patients. Shunt implantation in HFrEF patients was associated with a 45% decrease in cardiovascular events including death, need for left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation or heart transplantation, recurrent HF hospitalizations, and worsening outpatient HF events (P<0.0001), indicating that these results are unlikely to be due to chance. Favorable trends were seen for each of these cardiovascular event types, led by a 52% reduction in hospitalizations for HF. In contrast, shunt implantation in HFpEF patients was associated with an increase in these cardiovascular events. The RELIEVE-HF data was presented today by Gregg W. Stone, M.D., one of the principal investigators and professor of medicine, cardiology and population health sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and director of academic affairs for Mount Sinai Heart, during the Late-Breaking Clinical Trials session at the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Annual Scientific Session & Expo in Atlanta. "The RELIEVE-HF data are groundbreaking for the field of heart failure. Although the primary endpoint was not met, the study showed impressive results with interatrial shunting in patients with HFrEF but also definitively showed that this is not the right treatment for those who had HFpEF in our study," said Dr. Stone. "Study participants were all on maximally tolerated guideline-directed medical therapy, yet those with HFrEF still experienced a 45% decrease in adverse cardiovascular events. The primary safety endpoint for the study was clearly met, as no study participant experienced a device-related or procedure-related safety event up to 2 years after implantation." "V-Wave is the first company in the field of interatrial shunting to comprehensively study patients with both HFrEF or HFpEF in a randomized clinical trial," said Neal Eigler, M.D., chief executive officer of V-Wave. "Up until now, the field has mainly focused on HFpEF. Our results show the importance of performing best-quality, double-blind, controlled trials with stratified randomization to answer complex clinical questions as they bring assurance that the results are not likely due to chance. Despite the availability of approved treatments for patients with HFrEF, innovative approaches are still needed and, as RELIEVE-HF shows, are possible. Between the U.S. and the EU, there are 2-3 million HFrEF patients with NYHA Class III symptoms. These patients have a prognosis worse than many cancers and few remaining options. This places a terrible burden not only on patients but also on their families and the healthcare system. We are excited by the RELIEVE-HF results showing that the Ventura Interatrial Shunt improved heart failure hospitalizations and other study endpoints in patients with HFrEF, suggesting that our investigational device could potentially address those needs." About Heart Failure Heart failure (HF) is a chronic, progressive disease in which the heart cannot pump enough blood to meet the body's needs. HF affects 7 million people in the U.S, where it is a leading cause of death and hospitalization, and 56 million people globally. When HF occurs, there is an increase in left atrial pressure, which causes fluid to back up in the lungs. This causes pulmonary congestion and makes it hard to breathe during activities or even at rest. In addition to shortness of breath, symptoms include fatigue, rapid weight gain due to fluid retention, and swollen legs and feet. There are two types of HF. HFpEF is HF with preserved ejection fraction in which pressure builds up in the heart and lungs due to stiffening of the heart muscle. This type of HF is largely associated with obesity and hypertension. HFrEF is HF where the left ventricle, the main pumping chamber of the heart, is weakened, enlarged and can't effectively pump oxygen-rich blood to the body. HFpEF and HFrEF each make up about half of the HF population. Despite decades of advances in medical and device therapies, the 5-year mortality rate for each type of HF remains approximately 50%. About the V-Wave Ventura® Interatrial Shunt The V-Wave Ventura Interatrial Shunt is an investigational device that is implanted through a catheter inserted in a vein in the leg during a minimally invasive procedure. The Ventura Shunt is designed to offer a safe approach to treat HF by reducing elevations in left atrial pressure. Its novel, hourglass design optimizes the efficiency of blood flow, allows the possibility of future transseptal procedures, and keeps it firmly in place. Its biocompatible expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) encapsulation is designed to limit tissue growth and allow it to stay open and unobstructed. The V-Wave Ventura Interatrial Shunt has been granted Breakthrough Device Designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. About V-Wave V-Wave is a privately held medical device company that was established in 2009 and is focused on developing innovative treatment options for people living with heart failure and cardiovascular disease. The company was built on a foundation of science, engineering and medicine and has decades of experience in these fields. The company has offices in Israel and the U.S. For more information, please visit or V-Wave on LinkedIn. Forward-Looking Statement This press release contains certain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements related to clinical development and potential regulatory approval of V-Wave's products. All forward-looking statements and other information included in this press release are based on information available to V-Wave as of the date hereof, and the Company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements or information. The company's actual results could differ materially from those described in the company's forward-looking statements. CAUTION, the V-Wave Ventura Interatrial Shunt System is not available for sale in the United States or other countries. Limited by Federal (or United States) law to investigational use. Contact Elliot Fox, Real Chemistry efox@realchemistry.com 207-604-0956 View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE V-Wave Ltd.