2012 Guidelines of the Taiwan Society of Cardiology (TSOC) for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Heart Failure

Heart failure is the major terminal pathway for most cardiovascular disease. Initial heart failure guidelines were published by American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart Association (AHA) in 1995, and revised guidelines followed in 2001. Subsequently, there were another two update guidelines for diagnosis and management of heart failure published by ACC/AHA in 2005 and 2009 respectively. In Europe, initial guidelines for the diagnosis of heart failure were announced in 1995. Guidelines for the treatment of heart failure were published in 1997. From then on, several European Society of Cardiology (ESC) update guidelines have been published including guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of chronic heart failure in 2001, guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of acute heart failure in 2005, the ESC guidelines for cardiac pacing and cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in 2007, the ESC guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure in 2008, and the focused update of ESC guidelines on device therapy in heart failure in 2010. Later on, both Heart Failure Society of America (HFSA) and National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) launched their guidelines for heart failure in 2010 and 2011, respectively. This paper from the Heart Failure Committee of the Taiwan Society of Cardiology is to provide an updated guideline based on the above guidelines as well as Taiwanese domestic statistics and researches on the diagnosis and management of heart failure. We hope this practice guideline will be useful in the management of heart failure patients not only for cardiologists but also for all medical professionals.