Patients are constantly tired, short of breath and in and out of the hospital.
In fact, heart failure is the leading cause of hospitalization in people 65 and older. Several medicines are available to treat congestive heart failure, and they are reducing both the human and economic toll of this disease. A five-year study of more than 3,000 patients showed that higher doses of ACE inhibitor drugs could prolong the lives of people with this condition. The study, presented at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology in March 1998, showed that deaths from heart failure were reduced by 6 percent when the drug was taken at a level more than four times higher than usually prescribed. In a year-long disease management program for about 1100 patients with congestive heart failure run by Humana Hospitals, pharmacy costs increased by 60 percent, while hospital costs declined by 78 percent.