Vnitr Lek 2018, 64(9):834-838 | DOI: 10.36290/vnl.2018.114

Pathophysiology, causes and epidemiology of chronic heart failure

Jindřich Špinar^1,*, Lenka Špinarová², Jiří Vítovec²

¹ Interní kardiologická klinika LF MU a FN Brno, pracoviště Bohunice

² I. interní kardio-angiologická klinika LF MU a FN u sv. Anny v Brně

The prevalence of heart failure in developed countries is about 1-2 % in general and in patients above 70 years over 10 %. HFpEF is the cause of heart failure from 22 to 73 %, exact data are not available. If compared with HFrEF, patients with HFpEF are older, more frequent women with hypertension and atrial fibrillation, but less myocardial infarction in their history. Heart failure is a hemodynamic disorder and the pathophysiologic basis is cardiac output, cardiac contractility, filling pressures, wall stress during systolic and diastolic function and heart rate. The neurohumoral activation is very important for the diagnosis as well as prognosis and the most sensitive seems to be brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), respectively the precursor NT-proBNP, which become a part of the new diagnostic classification and are a part of modern treatment.

Keywords: heart failure; hemodynamics; neurohumoral activation

Received: July 18, 2018; Accepted: August 13, 2018; Published: September 1, 2018  Show citation