[New pharmacological agents in heart failure]

Heart failure is a common and growing public health problem, with increasing incidence and prevalence over the last 2 decades. Despite improvements in its current management, heart failure is still associated with significant morbidity and mortality. This has motivated the search for newer therapeutic modalities, which are based on a better understanding on the pathophysiologic events that lead to heart failure. This review summarizes the potential role of new pharmacological agents in the treatment of heart failure. These potential new agents can be classified according to their role in the modulation of the main pathophysiologic abnormalities that characterized heart failure, that include: cellular-extracellular abnormalities, endothelial dysfunction, neurohormonal and immunologic activation.