Joseph Hamlin Jr
Research Mentor(s): Scott Hummel
Mentor Department: Internal Medicine – Cardiology
Authors: Joseph Hamlin, Joanna Wells, Scott Hummel
Session: Session 6 (3:00pm – 3:50pm)
Presentation Type: Poster 24
Abstract
Heart Failure with preserved Ejection Fraction (HFpEF) is a chronic heart failure where the left ventricle is unable to properly pump blood through the body. A study was done to investigate the effect of high-resistant starch implementation to the diet on Short Chain Fatty Acid (SCFA, a byproduct of metabolism) production, and consequently the effect on health of the gut microbiome (a naturally occurring group of bacteria in the intestines). If the SCFA production increases, previous studies have signified that this may help improve the symptoms of HFpEF. For this study, 30 patients are asked to record a three day food diary, take two separate fecal samples on two of these three days, and are evaluated for heart failure symptom severities. They are then asked to orally take 10 grams of starch twice a day for a week, checked for adverse effects, and asked to increase intake to 20 grams of starch twice daily for three additional weeks. During the last week, they will repeat the fecal sampling and food diary and come back to the clinic for a follow up where their heart failure symptoms will be evaluated once again. We hypothesize that this significant increase in dietary starch will positively affect the gut microbiome and SCFA production, consequently reducing the symptoms for HFpEF.
