Hormone treatments in congestive heart failure

The common ultimate pathological feature for all cardiovascular diseases, congestive heart failure (CHF), is now considered as one of the main public health burdens that is associated with grave implications. Neurohormonal systems play a critical role in cardiovascular homeostasis, pathophysiology, and cardiovascular diseases. Hormone treatments such as the newly invented dual-acting drug valsartan/sacubitril are promising candidates for CHF, in addition to the conventional medications encompassing beta receptor blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists. Clinical trials also indicate that in CHF patients with low insulin-like growth factor-1 or low thyroid hormone levels, supplemental treatment with growth hormone or thyroid hormone seems to be cardioprotective; and in CHF patients with volume overload the vasopressin antagonists can relieve the symptoms superior to loop diuretics. Furthermore, a combination of selective glucocorticoid receptor agonist and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist may be used in patients with diuretic resistance. Finally, the potential cardiovascular efficacy and safety of incretin-based therapies, testosterone or estrogen supplementation needs to be prudently evaluated in large-scale clinical studies. In this review, we briefly discuss the therapeutic effects of several key hormones in CHF.