The Future of Heart Failure Management

The management of heart failure has undergone considerable advances over the past 15 years. Clinical trials have demonstrated that treatment with a number of different agents can relieve symptoms, reduce hospitalisation and increase life expectancy [1–5]. However, despite these successes, the prevalence of heart failure is rising partly due to ageing of the population, partly due to better secondary prevention which prolongs life after myocardial infarction and partly due to an improvement in the prognosis of heart failure itself [6]. Furthermore, the condition continues to be associated with high morbidity and mortality. Indeed, clinical trials [5,7,8] and community data [6, 9, 10] suggest a 50% mortality rate within 3–5 years of diagnosis, a prognosis approximating that observed with many common malignancies [11].