ALTERATIONS IN THE PROGNOSIS OF CHRONIC HEART-FAILURE - AN OVERVIEW OF THE MAJOR MORTALITY TRIALS

Treatment of chronic heart failure (CHF) remains a major medical probl em. Although in the last decades the benefits of several therapies in different patient populations with left ventricular dysfunction have b een established, morbidity and mortality of CHF patients are high. Con sequently, in the last decade improvement of survival has become the p rimary therapeutic endpoint in CHF studies, and the evaluation of the influence of (new) drugs on mortality has become crucial. In the prese nt article an overview of the large mortality trials is given, and the shifts and alterations in the drug treatment strategy of CHF are disc ussed.