Congestive heart failure (CHF) refers to when the heart fails to work as well as it normally should and is not pumping enough blood to the body’s other organs.
Many things can cause this condition, including narrowed arteries that supply the blood to the heart, coronary artery disease, a past heart attack or myocardial infarction where scar tissue is interfering with the heart muscle's ability to work normally, and high blood pressure.
“Congestive” means that because the blood flow out of the heart is slow, the blood returning to the heart through the vein gets backed up. This causes congestion and swelling.
Usually, there is swelling in the legs and ankles, but it can happen in other parts of the body as well. Sometimes fluid collects in the lungs and interferes with breathing, causing shortness of breath -- especially when a person is lying down.
CHF is reaching epidemic proportions in the United States with an estimated 6 million people suffering from the condition and about 400,000 new cases diagnosed each year.
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Electronic nurse
The new technology lets nurses monitor patients from home to reduce hospital visits.
 
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One thing every doctor recommends is a change of lifestyle in the ordinary ways: no smoking, no drinking alcohol, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol, exercising, etc.
However, doctors also say patients should weigh themselves every day to watch for indicators that there may be fluid building up.
Unfortunately for many of these patients, health, age and other accumulative factors prevent them from jumping in their car to see a doctor when the scales show they way more than they should.
Patients often realize something is wrong but are helpless to do anything about it until they are able to see a physician, which may take weeks or even months. A new device may solve this problem.
Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y., is now offering its patients a new technology that could save some CHF patients' lives. The telemedine technology, dubbed the "electronic nurse," is like having a nurse at your house. In the morning, patients are prompted by a voice and an on-screen monitor.
The technology measures body weight, shortness of breath, dizziness, swelling of the ankles, blood pressure and other symptoms related to CHF. The system then sends the results to the nurses at Montefiore's care management organization.
The nurses evaluate the results and call patients with advice. Solutions are often as simple as increasing medication, bed rest for a day, or adjusting fluid intake.
"If something is amiss, such as a rapid gain in weight overnight, the nurse contacts the patient immediately," medical management director Anne Meara said. "Our goal is to help manage our patients' conditions so we can keep small things from becoming bigger ones with even more serious consequences."
Researchers expect more medical facilities will provide the technology to their patients in the near future.
"The results are so compelling, and the technology is advancing so quickly, we are looking into expanding to include other monitoring modalities," Dr. David Bernard said. "We're also looking into helping patients with other conditions that require monitoring, such as diabetes or lung disease. This has real potential for helping the frail elderly who are living alone."
