The Battle Against Heart Disease Story aired: Monday, January 24, 2005
Two new medical studies are leading doctors to re-examine the way they diagnose and treat heart disease.
For years doctors have tested cholesterol levels to determine the health of a person's heart. But the New England Journal of Medicine reports this month that something known as the C-reactive protein may be a better way to predict the risk of a heart attack or stroke.
The protein measures inflammation in artery walls and is now being recognized as a prime risk factor in the more than five million people suffering from the heart disease. Using the protein to predict heart attacks could possibly prevent some of the 50,000 deaths a year.
But other advances in treating hearts have not met with the success that was hoped for. Bill Wohl is sometimes know as the man with three hearts. He had the one he was born with for 52 years, then lived with an artificial heart for 159 days, and he's been living with a donor heart for the past five years. The technology that kept Bill alive is going from experimental to mainstream. The FDA gave its first-ever approval to an artificial heart last year.
Bill Wohl from Scottsdale, Arizona, and Dr. Marvin Slepian, CEO of Syncardia and a cardiologist at the University of Arizona, spoke with Here and Now. They talk about life with an artificial heart and the impact it could have on people with heart disease.
Guests:
Bill Wohl heart patient from Scottsdale, Arizona.
Dr. Marvin Slepian, CEO of Syncardia, and a cardiologist at the University of Arizona.
