2 September, 2015 – Progress comes from Italy in the field of cardiology. The study Italian “Arno” conducted by the Consortium Core Cineca (on a real-life sample of 2.5 million people) confirms heart failure as one of the more complex chronic diseases, requiring special diagnostics and particular clinical attention. The research, presented at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) in London, captures the Italian identity of the persons who suffer from heart failure: elderly people (slightly more women than men) in poor health, people receiving not always optimal treatment and destined to repeated hospitalizations (which in almost half the cases are not due to cardiovascular complications). This identikit of Italian patients was observed in “real life” and not in the protected environment of clinical trials. Heart failure affects nearly one million patients in Italy. It’s a debilitating syndrome in which the heart is no longer able to pump an adequate amount of blood in the body, with potentially lethal consequences. This disease is even more aggressive than some advanced cancers and its incidence is steadily growing – due to unhealthy lifestyles, increased survival rates after a heart attack episodes, and an aging population. (Sis)
