Individualized care in patients with chronic congestive heart failure

Based on our experience with the prospective follow-up study in a group of patients (n = 21) with congestive heart failure (CHF) (NYHA III n = 10, NYHA IV n = 11) and left ventricular ejection fraction below 30%, who were referred to our ordinary care unit by their family physicians after an initial work-up, we investigated the impact of a special treatment program in 25 patients with similar CHF despite therapy (60 +/- 4 years, NYHA III n = 11, NYHA IV n = 14, LVEF less than 30%, 17 +/- 3%). The program focused on three issues: (1) individualized medical therapy of CHF, (2) antiarrhythmic treatment and close follow-up visits, and (3) continuous education of patients and physicians in order to improve treatment compliance and the early management of complications. Medical treatment was based on diuretic and vasodilator therapy in all the patients, while positive inotropic substances including digoxin were given selectively. Vasodilator treatment was started with prazosin in 22 patients and with ACE inhibitors in three patients with low serum sodium. Fifty-five percent of the patients on prazosin had to be changed over to ACE inhibitors. Amiodarone was used as first line drug to treat symptomatic ventricular tachycardia in two patients and two survivors of ventricular fibrillation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)