Top Things to Know: State of the Science: The Relevance of Symptoms in CVD and Research
Published: August 18, 2022
- Symptoms are subjective experiences that may indicate underlying cardiovascular disease or change therein.
- Symptoms are of fundamental significance not only to the diagnosis of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and appraisal of response to medical therapy but also directly to patients’ daily lives.
- Symptoms of CVD drive health care utilization and are a major contributor to quality of life.
- Symptoms may be highly variable among patients with similar cardiovascular disorders and may differ based on sex, age, and ethnicity.
- There are several known sex differences between men and women in symptoms of acute coronary syndrome, heart failure, aortic valve disease, stroke, atrial fibrillation, and peripheral artery disease.
- Existing measures of CVD symptoms vary considerably with respect to comprehensiveness, reliability, validity, responsiveness to change and measurement bias.
- Depression, common across many CVDs, can influence a patient’s ability to detect a change in symptoms thus measuring depression is important to establish a baseline and in response to significant clinical changes.
- Cognitive dysfunction, common in heart failure and stroke, also can influence a patient’s ability to detect a change in symptoms.
- Establishing a baseline symptom profile and tracking symptoms over time with a valid and clinically feasible measure can be helpful for detecting changes and progression of symptoms.
- Monitoring symptoms with reliable and valid measures in clinical practice may enhance clinical care by identifying those who may be at risk for poor outcomes more quickly.
Citation
Jurgens CY, Lee CS, Aycock DM, Masterson Creber R, Denfeld QE, DeVon HA, Evers LR, Jung M, Pucciarelli G, Streur MM, Konstam MA; on behalf of the American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing; Council on Hypertension; and Stroke Council. State of the science: the relevance of symptoms in cardiovascular disease and research: A scientific statement from the American Heart Association [published online ahead of print August 18, 2022]. Circulation. doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000001089