Optimising management of patients with advanced heart failure: the importance of preventing progression

Heart failure is a highly complex, progressive and deadly disease. When incorrectly treated, it results in irreversible structural damage to the myocardium and resists any conventional treatment. This stage has been arbitrarily termed refractory heart failure. However, with timely and sufficiently applied neurohumoral antagonists, progression can be prevented, or at least delayed. In contrast, as soon as heart failure has become moderate or severe due to advanced left ventricular dysfunction, polypharmacy is the rule. Physicians should make every effort to maintain or reconsider optimal neurohumoral antagonist therapy in such patients, even if symptomatic improvement from these agents may be slow. Proper use of diuretics is essential not only for symptom relief but also to achieve full benefit from angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors and beta-blockers. Digitalis may be particularly indicated in severe heart failure, irrespective of rhythm. Adjunctive regimens can be helpful in specific patients, but evidence of their salutary effects to prolong life is lacking. In the decompensated state, tailoring intravenous therapy to haemodynamic goals followed by (re-)institution of optimal oral therapy is an option. Only if these strategies fail is heart transplantation justified. While waiting for a donor, patients have been bridged with various intravenous agents, most often inotropes, but symptom relief is associated with risk of increased mortality due to these drugs. New hope emerges from drugs interfering with endothelin and the cytokines, and from research into increasing contractility with calcium sensitising agents. Even though these developments follow established routes, they may enable a more effective approach to prevent worsening heart failure in every single patient.