HEART-FAILURE - THE CINDERELLA OF CARDIOLOGY

Heart failure is common and has a high mortality. These factors alone should make it an important public health issue. But the advent of new approaches to diagnosis and expensive forms of treatment have increas ed this importance to public health professionals. It has, however, re ceived rather less attention than other manifestations of heart diseas e. This review summarises the major issues facing public health profes sionals seeking to develop strategies to tackle this condition. These include; what is known about diagnostic criteria, the prevalence of di sease, including the important gaps in our knowledge about how it affe cts women, and the cost benefits, including the impact on quality of l ife, of emerging treatments. The review concludes with suggestions for research.