Current Approach to Heart Failure

This book is intended to be a link between guidelines and clinical practice, a complementary tool to help physicians to be well informed regarding the important field of heart failure. It will be a useful tool for professionals from all the fields of cardiology: non-invasive cardiology, interventional cardiology, electrophysiology and cardiovascular imaging.

The topic of heart failure is continuously changing, with new important information being added constantly. The pathophysiology is better understood and there is a trend for a better characterization of special groups of population, such as oncologic patients with heart failure. The new imaging techniques have become valuable tools for the diagnosis of heart failure, while pharmacological and novel cell and gene treatments have evolved enormously.

The challenge for the practitioners is making the right selection of treatment strategy that best fits a patient. This book presents detailed information on the indications, selection and mechanism of action of these treatments, whether they be mechanical circulatory devices or pharmacological treatments. The contemporary pharmacological and non-pharmacological management of heart failure has the main target of early prevention of disease progression and the avoidance of heart transplant. In the era of shortage of donors, prevention is the mainstay of the therapeutic strategy, and this is the main philosophy of our book.

Prof Maria Dorobantu is professor of Cardiology at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Carol Davila Bucharest, Romania, and head of the Cardiology Department of Clinical Emergency Hospital, Bucharest. She has a special interest in the assessment and treatment of acute heart failure (HF). She has been principal investigator in the the phase III RELAX-AHF and RELAX-AHF-2 trials as well as SENIORS and BEAUTIFUL trials. These trials regard the effects of the new agent serelaxin in the patients with acute HF. Between 2008 and 2014 she was member of CPC of ESC, Group of Hypertension.

Prof Marco Metra is professor of cardiology at the University of Brescia and directs the Institute of Cardiology of the University and Civil Hospital of Brescia, Italy. Prof Metra has been principal investigator and member of the Executive or Steering Committees of many trials in patients with HF. His research is focused on HF: ß-blocker therapy, cardiopulmonary exercise testing and the assessment and treatment of acute HF. Prof Metra is also member of the Executive Committee or data Monitoring Committee of many major trials regarding the treatment of HF. As board member of the HF Association (HFA) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) from 2001 to 2008, He has been a member of the ESC’s Committee for Practice Guidelines (years 2004–8), and has been co-chair of the 2008 meeting of the HFA of ESC, held in Milan in June 2008.

Prof Frank Ruschitzka is head of the HF and Transplantation Clinic at the University Hospital in Zürich, Switzerland. He specialized in internal medicine, nephrology and cardiology at the Universities of Göttingen and Zürich. In 2003, he was awarded the annual Götz-Preis of the Medical Faculty of the University of Zürich for excellence in clinical medicine and research. He is the President Elect of the HF Association of the ESC. Professor Ruschitzka's research interests focusses on delineating novel targets and therapies in coronary artery disease and HF.