An Overview of Chronic Heart

  • Unique Paper ID: 160487
  • Volume: 10
  • Issue: 1
  • PageNo: 699-706
  • Abstract:
  • Chronic heart failure (CHF) remains the only disease with an increasing hospitalization burden and an ongoing drain on health care expenditures. The prevalence of CHF increases with advancing life span, with diastolic heart failure predominating in the elderly population. Primary prevention of coronary artery disease and risk factor management via aggressive blood pressure control are central in preventing new occurrences of left ventricular dysfunction. Optimal therapy for CHF involves identification and correction of potentially reversible precipitants, target-dose titration of medical therapy, and management of hospitalizations for decompensation. The etiological phenotype, absolute decrease in left ventricular ejection fraction and a widening of QRS duration on electrocardiography, is commonly used to identify patients at increased risk of progression of heart failure and sudden death who may benefit from prophylactic implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement with or without cardiac resynchronization therapy. Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a progressive syndrome that results in a poor quality of life for the patient and places an economic burden on the health care system. Despite advances in the control of cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction (MI), the incidence and prevalence of CHF continue to increase. An accurate estimate of disease burden is difficult to gather because of the vast number of patients with asymptomatic left ventricular (LV) dysfunction. As the population ages, there is an epidemiological shift toward a greater prevalence of clinical heart failure with preserved LV function, the so- called stiff-heart syndrome. In fact, heart failure with preserved systolic function may account for up to two-thirds of cases in patients older than 70 years.2 Regardless of age, the lifetime risk of developing heart failure is approximately 20% for all patients older than 40 years.
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  • ISSN: 2349-6002
  • Volume: 10
  • Issue: 1
  • PageNo: 699-706

An Overview of Chronic Heart

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