Brain Damage in Heart Patients Tied to Depression

A study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) demonstrated considerable tissue loss in the areas of heart-failure patients' brains that control the autonomic nervous system, interfering with the cardiovascular system's ability to quickly adapt to alterations in blood pressure and heart rate.

The damage, as shown on fMRI scans, lies in the same brain regions showing changes in people suffering major depression, which may explain why many heart-failure patients are frequently depressed. The brain damage could significantly affect heart-failure patients' ability to exercise and lower their overall quality of life.

Clinically, the researchers, from the University of California, Los Angeles (USA), reported that the study's findings stress the need for (1) cardiologists to recognize that heart-failure patients suffer from a brain injury, as well as a heart injury, and (2) that medications or other treatments must be developed to cross the blood-brain barrier, enhance brain function, and prevent brain injury. The study was published in the August 2005 issue of the Journal of Cardiac Failure.





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