Heart failure is the final common pathway for many diseases that affect the cardiovascular system, if left untreated in the early course of disease. The lifetime risk for developing heart failure is about 20%. Increasing prevalence of cardiac risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia, as well as improved survival of patients with acute cardiovascular diseases have resulted in HF becoming a major public health problem, across the world. A rough estimate on the community-level prevalence of HF in the adult population in India is about 1 %. In this article risk factors, pathophysiological basis, classification and treatment of chronic heart failure are reviewed.
Key words: chronic heart failure, brain natriuretic peptide,cardiac resynchronization therapy
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