BENDOPNEA. A NEW SYMPTOM OF ADVANCED HEART FAILURE.

It is true that it has been a long time since we read of new symptoms in a rather old disease like heart failure.
Dr Jennifer Thibodeau and colleagues from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, identified this symptom in 29 of their 102 patients with class 3,4 heart failure who were scheduled for cardiac catheterisation. Their findings were published in JACC: Heart Failure, 1st Feb 2014.
"Bendopnea" is defined as shortness of breath on bending forward, as if sitting on a chair to tie your shoe laces. Most often this feeling of shortness of breath occurs within 30secs of bending forward. In their study, they found that those with "bendopnea" had higher LV filling pressure as in pulmonary capillary wedged pressure and also lower cardiac index.
Nice to have a new symptom, but what I did not see in Dr Jennifer's paper was the false positive and false negatives of this symptom. She however did say that this symptom did not seem to be found more often in those with a greater abdominal girth. Many of u may have periodically experienced some shortness of breathe when we bend down to wear our shoes.
Anyway, any symptom that may help us identify heart failure is good, so that we can pick up  more of the patients who may need our help. There is now so many therapies that we can offer them, that can relieve symptoms and also prolong life.