Heart Failure

According to the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA), heart failure (HF) is a "complex clinical syndrome that can result from any structural or functional cardiac disorder that impairs the ventricle's ability to fill with or eject blood."1 HF can be categorized as either acute or chronic; involve the left, right, or both sides of the heart; and can be systolic or diastolic.2,3 In the past, HF was often referred to as congestive HF; however, not all cases of HF have a volume overload, and AHA and ACC prefer that medical professionals do not use this term.1

The terms cardiomyopathy and left ventricular dysfunction describe the potential structural or functional causes of HF; although these terms are often used in HF discussions, they are not equivalent to HF. AHA defines cardiomyopathies as "a heterogeneous group of diseases of the myocardium associated with mechanical and/or electrical dysfunction that usually...