IMR Press / RCM / Volume 24 / Issue 7 / DOI: 10.31083/j.rcm2407208
Open Access Review
Chronic Heart Failure Management: Monitoring Patients and Intercepting Exacerbations
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1 Dipartimento di Scienze Cliniche, Internistiche, Anestesiologiche e Cardiovascolari, Policlinico Umberto I, “Sapienza'' University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy
2 Department of Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties, Policlinico Umberto I, 00161 Rome, Italy
3 Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Molecolare, S. Andrea Hospital, “Sapienza'' University of Rome, 00189 Rome, Italy
*Correspondence: federica.moscucci@uniroma1.it (Federica Moscucci)
Rev. Cardiovasc. Med. 2023, 24(7), 208; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.rcm2407208
Submitted: 27 October 2022 | Revised: 3 January 2023 | Accepted: 22 March 2023 | Published: 17 July 2023
Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Despite significant progress in the field of therapy and management, chronic heart failure (CHF) still remains one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality, especially among the elderly in Western countries. In particular, frequent episodes of decompensation and, consequently, repeated hospitalizations represent an unsustainable burden for national health systems and the cause of worsening quality of life. CHF is more prevalent in elderly women, who often have “peculiar” clinical characteristics and a more preserved ejection fraction caused by endothelial dysfunction and micro-vessel damage. At the moment, noninvasive technologies that are able to remotely monitor these patients are not widely available yet, and clinical trials are underway to evaluate invasive remote sensors. Unfortunately, implantable devices for identifying decompensation are not the most practical solution in the majority of of patients with chronic heart failure. In particular, they are hypothesized to have the possibility of monitoring patients by pro-B-type natriuretic peptide, ventricular repolarization variability, and bioimpedance cardiography at the first point of care, but new technology and clinical trials must be planned to address the development and spread of these emergent possibilities.

Keywords
heart failure
prognosis
repolarization
sex/gender peculiarities
ECG markers
bioimpedance
Figures
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