الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
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. |