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Swedish scientists say more pacemakers could help heart disease

Category: Heart Health and Cholesterol

Severe heart disease, which can oftentimes be predicted by high results on cholesterol testing reports, is occasionally managed by surgically implanted heart rate regulation devices known as pacemakers. Generally, pacemakers are not administered to individuals whose heart disease is considered mild. However, findings from Karolinska Institutet show that pacemakers could reduce the risk of dying for patients with mild heart disease as much as those with more serious conditions.

Looking at data from the Swedish Heart Failure Registry, researchers found a particular change in electronic heart screenings connected with greater odds of mortality due to the right and left halves of the heart working against each other. Pacemakers, the Swedish scientists say, could be used to get the heart's two halves in sync, which could reduce heart failure deaths.

The connection between unfortunate results from cholesterol testing and heart failure is well known. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that high cholesterol makes individuals twice as likely to experience heart failure than those with a healthy amount of blood cholesterol. Furthermore, 16 percent of U.S. residents have dangerously high cholesterol.