Four Factors Increasing the Risk of Heart Failure

A new study published in Circulation: journal of the American Heart Association, shows that smoking, high blood pressure, excess weight, and diabetes are major risk factors for increasing the size of the heart's left ventricle.

The left ventricle is the pumping chamber of the heart. An increase in the size and thickness, or "mass," of the left ventricle is a worrisome condition that can lead to heart failure. For heart failure symptoms, click here.

Boston University researchers said that in a study of more than 4,200 people, those four risk factors were strongly correlated with greater left ventricle mass over the short term, as well as over the long term.

Ramchandran S. Vasan, MD, senior investigator of the study and chief of the section of preventive medicine at Boston University School of Medicine said,

"These factors can be directly targeted for prevention and lowering these risk factors therefore could potentially lower the burden of heart failure."

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