Heart failure is diagnosed when the heart no longer sufficiently plays its role of a pump to meet the body’s daily needs.
Heart failure is a complex and heterogenous syndrom which brings together diversified clinical expressions. It can occur at any age. It can be associated with several cardiovascular pathologies: high blood pressure, diabetes, coronaropathy, cardiomyopathy, myocarditis, valvulopathy and pneumopathies.
Each year, heart failure affects one to five persons in a thousand in industrialized countries, all ages considered, with a prevalence of three to twenty in a thousand. The average age of occurrence is 73.5 years; 2/3 of patients are aged above 70.
Heart failure has a poor prognosis. The one-year survival, all stages considered, is about 65%.
Heart failure is one of the first causes of cardiovascular death, and is often the result of a myocardial infarction or high blood pressure.
Its prevalence regularly increases in developed countries and Heart Failure is the first cause of hospitalisation for patients aged above 65.