Congestive Heart Failure

Abstract

Heart failure (HF) is an emerging epidemic disorder. As one of the most prevalent diseases in the world, HF has a significant impact on mortality. Before the 1990s, HF mortality rate in 5 yr was about 60-70 percent. Despite the improvements in treatment, heart disease-related mortality rate has decreased 20-30 percent, but is still considered high (Mc Murray 2010). Furthermore, decompensated HF is one of the most frequent causes of hospitalization (Mc Murray 2010). Therefore, it is necessary to elucidate the mechanisms involved in HF that could be potential sites of intervention.