Chronic heart failure – Related resources

Cochrane reviews

• Bone marrow stem cell treatment administered to people suffering from chronic ischaemic heart disease and congestive heart failure may reduce mortality and rehospitalisation due to heart failure compared to standard treatment .
• Case management type interventions led by a heart failure specialist nurse reduce heart failure related and all cause hospitalizations and all cause mortality among patients who have previously been admitted to hospital for congestive heart failure .
• Hawthorn extract as an adjunctive treatment for chronic heart failure may improve heart failure symptom control and physiologic outcomes. Whether or not hawthorn has adverse effects on the prognosis of patients with chronic heart failure is not known .
• Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents in patients with symptomatic chronic heart failure and mild anaemia may improve anaemia and exercise tolerance, as well as reduce symptoms, hospitalisations, and mortality .

Other evidence summaries

• Losartan is no better than captopril in improving survival in elderly heart failure patients. Losartan may cause less adverse effects, particularly cough .Beta-blockers increase left ventricular ejection fraction in patients with congestive heart failure .
• Exercise training in patients with heart failure reduces overall mortality and is safe .
• Education and counselling may be beneficial in improving compliance in patients with heart failure .
• Redistribution and cardiomegaly appear to be the best chest radiographic findings for diagnosing increased preload and reduced ejection fraction, respectively, but they have only moderate sensitivities and specificities .
• Radiographic redistribution and jugular venous distension are very helpful in the detection of increased filling pressure. Radiographic cardiomegaly or redistribution, anterior q-waves, left bundle branch block or abnormal atypical impulse were very helpful findings in detecting decreased ejection fraction. Only the presence of current hypertension is very helpful in distinguishing diastolic from systolic dysfunction .

Clinical guidelines

• Ponikowski P, Voors AA, Anker SD et al. 2016 ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure: The Task Force for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). Developed with the special contribution of the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the ESC. Eur J Heart Fail 2016;18(8):891-975. McMurray JJ, Adamopoulos S, Anker SD et al. ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure 2012: The Task Force for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute and Chronic Heart Failure 2012 of the European Society of Cardiology. Developed in collaboration with the Heart Failure Association (HFA) of the ESC. Eur Heart J 2012;33(14):1787-847.

Literature

• McMurray JJ. Clinical practice. Systolic heart failure. N Engl J Med 2010 Jan 21;362(3):228-38. Task Force for Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute and Chronic Heart Failure 2008 of European Society of Cardiology, Dickstein K, Cohen-Solal A, Filippatos G, McMurray JJ, Ponikowski P, Poole-Wilson PA, Strömberg A, van Veldhuisen DJ, Atar D, Hoes AW, Keren A, Mebazaa A, Nieminen M, Priori SG, Swedberg K, ESC Committee for Practice Guidelines, Vahanian A, Camm J, De Caterina R, Dean V, Dickstein K, Filippatos G, Funck-Brentano C, Hellemans I, Kristensen SD, McGregor K, Sechtem U, Silber S, Tendera M, Widimsky P, Zamorano JL. ESC Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure 2008: the Task Force for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Acute and Chronic Heart Failure 2008 of the European Society of Cardiology. Developed in collaboration with the Heart Failure Association of the ESC (HFA) and endorsed by the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM). Eur Heart J 2008 Oct;29(19):2388-442.
• Sanderson JE, Yip GW. Heart failure with a normal ejection fraction. BMJ 2009 Jan 27;338():b52.
• Maeder MT, Kaye DM. Heart failure with normal left ventricular ejection fraction. J Am Coll Cardiol 2009 Mar 17;53(11):905-18.
• Cleland JG, Daubert JC, Erdmann E, Freemantle N, Gras D, Kappenberger L, Tavazzi L, Cardiac Resynchronization-Heart Failure (CARE-HF) Study Investigators. The effect of cardiac resynchronization on morbidity and mortality in heart failure. N Engl J Med 2005 Apr 14;352(15):1539-49.