Non-Invasive Evaluation and Early Treatment of Heart Failure Patients

The effects of the growing spreading of heart failure (HF) in Italy can be described on the basis of data from the Italian National Health Care System (www.sanita.it) relating to the number of patients discharged from Italian hospitals with the main diagnosis of HF (DRG 127) in the last 5 years (Fig. 1). From 86 235 patients discharged in 1995, the number reached 170 972 discharged with DRG 127 in 1999. In 5 years, the number of patients with HF discharged from Italian hospitals has nearly doubled, with an estimated global cost of about € 500 million per year.