Wales has the highest rate of heart failure anywhere in the UK

Wales has the highest rate of heart failure anywhere in the UK

• 2 JUN 2016
• BY MARK SMITH

More than 30,000 people in Wales have been diagnosed with the condition

Wales has the highest prevalence of heart failure of any country in the UK, it has been revealed.

Latest statistics from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) have shown that more than 30,000 people in Wales have been diagnosed with heart failure.

The charity discovered that you are more likely to suffer heart failure in Wales than any other UK country.

Heart failure is incurable

Heart failure is most commonly caused by a heart attack which causes damage to the heart muscle that can never be repaired.

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This means a person’s heart fails to pump blood around the body efficiently, leaving many sufferers in a constant fight for a good quality of life.

Symptoms can include fatigue, shortness of breath and fluid retention.

Up to a third of patients admitted to hospital with heart failure will die within 12 months.

While there is medication to manage the condition and control symptoms, there is currently no cure, and the only hope for some with severe heart failure is a heart transplant to save their life.

New research grant

BHF Cymru have recently been awarded over £1m to fund research at Cardiff University led by Professor Alan Williams to investigate how defects in heart muscle cells can lead to abnormal heart rhythms.

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Prof Williams said: “We are working to find if these defects are also present in people with inherited heart conditions and people with heart failure.”

Dr Chris George and Dr Lowri Thomas at Cardiff University said: “People with heart failure are in a desperate situation.

“That is why we do what we do. Through the power of research we want to give hope and a better quality of life to people with debilitating conditions like heart failure, and give hope to their loved ones too.”

Throughout June the BHF is raising awareness of this condition which the charity claims is relatively unknown among the public.

It says more research into heart failure is urgently needed to help the thousands of sufferers in Wales.

see-http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/wales-highest-rate-heart-failure-11415712