الفهرس 
Definition of heart failureOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Heart failure (HF) is a progressive and debilitating disease.
Heart failure can be defined as an abnormality of cardiac structure or
function leading to failure of the heart to deliver oxygen at a rate commensurate
with the requirements of the metabolizing tissues, despite normal filling
pressures (or only at the expense of increased filling pressures).
Acute and chronic decompensated HF are leading medical causes of
hospitalization among people aged over 65 years in European countries, the
USA, Australia and New Zealand.
The incidence of HF increases with age, such that 75% of male HF
patients and 85% of female HF patients are over 65.
At least half of patients with HF have a low EF (i.e. HF-REF). Coronary
artery disease (CAD) is the cause of approximately two-thirds of cases of
systolic HF, although hypertension and diabetes are probable contributing
factors in many cases. There are many other causes of systolic HF, which
include previous viral infection (recognized or unrecognized), alcohol abuse,
chemotherapy (e.g. doxorubicin or trastuzumab), and ‘idiopathic’ dilated
cardiomyopathy (although the cause is thought to be unknown, some of these
cases may have a genetic basis).
Possible determinants of length of hospital stay for patients with HF
include socio-demographic variables, medical comorbidities, disease severity,
clinical presentation (NYHA class), in-patient treatment, in-hospital progress
and the development of iatrogenic complications.