Heart Disease UK

From Richard N. Fogoros, M.D.,

Getting what you need from your doctor
Anyone diagnosed with heart disease should expect the following:
1)Insist on a thorough search for a definitive underlying cause. Especially important is to rule out undiagnosed coronary artery disease and valvular heart disease.
But you need to make sure that your doctor aggressively focuses on looking for all reversible causes of cardiomyopathy, before further heart damage is done.
2)Insist on being placed on ACE inhibitors and beta blockers. These two drug therapies for cardiomyopathy are relatively recent, and in the case of beta blockers are counterintuitive and against what many doctors have been taught for years. But these therapies are now well-documented not only to improve symptoms, but also to reduce mortality with dilated cardiomyopathy.
3)Insist on being carefully instructed on how to monitor yourself to reduce the frequency of the periodic exacerbations of heart failure seen with dilated cardiomyopathy. It is now felt that by looking for telltale changes in vital signs and weight, the exacerbations of heart disease that lead to periodic hospitalization can often be “headed off” by timely medication adjustments.
4)Insist that your doctor specifically address the issue of life-threatening arrhythmias. While usage of the implantable defibrillator is limited by the FDA, appropriate indications for using this life-saving device in patients with cardiac problem are changing frequently. Since a large proportion of deaths in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy are sudden and due to arrhythmias, this is an important issue that needs to be periodically revisited.
5)Ask your doctor if you are a candidate for CRT. This new therapy is possibly the most important recent advance in treating cardiac failure, and many doctors are still completely unaware of it.