Chronic Heart Failure: Pocketbook

Heart failure is an inability of the heart to deliver blood (and therefore oxygen) at a rate commensurate with the body's requirements despite normal cardiac filling pressures. Heart failure is common and increasingly so, given the increase in the aging population; it has a high morbidity and a very high mortality. In the UK, at least 1-2% of the population suffer from heart failure as a result of left ventricular systolic dysfunction. Approximately the same number again has asymptomatic left ventricular systolic dysfunction. It is a big problem. A number of effective therapeutic and non-therapeutic treatments exist. This pocketbook elegantly summarizes the background, the diagnosis, and the clinical evidence for the most effective treatments available for heart failure patients.