Drugs, heart failure and quality of life: what are we achieving? What should we be trying to achieve?

This article is a review of chronic compensated congestive heart failure (CHF), with special reference to its clinical features and pathophysiology and recent advances in pharmacotherapy, including beta-blockers, loop diuretics, ACE inhibitors and angiotensin II receptor antagonists. Clinical problems related to elderly patients and multifaceted aspects of multidisciplinary approaches of medical care to these particular patients are also discussed with special emphasis on the aspect of improved quality of life associated with reduced mortality. Concepts of CHF have greatly changed over the past decades with regard to its pathophysiology, natural progression, mechanisms, causes of death, arrhythmias and treatment goals. Although the current most frequent aetiologies of CHF include coronary heart disease and dilated cardiomyopathy, hypertension has been revisited in a different way, and has been considered of pivotal importance in most recent trends and possibly in future perspectives. Nowadays, however, with the results of improved survival, alleviation of symptoms, improvement in functional capacity and prevention of associated complications including even left ventricular remodelling through various appropriate pharmacotherapies, patients with CHF are used to being physically and psychosocially more active than ever before. Thus, improvement of patients' quality of life and reduction of mortality have become of prime importance in achieving treatment goals. Another emerging aspect of CHF is aging itself, and special features in the medical care of elderly patients with CHF always have to be taken into consideration in reduction of hospital readmission along with improvement of morbidity and mortality. Despite advances in the treatment of CHF, it remains a common disease with a poor prognosis. Therefore, this review focuses on what we should be trying to achieve in reaching goals to reduce repeated hospital readmission and mortality, and increase social activity and quality of life, especially in elderly patients with CHF. In these clinical settings, educational strategies for patients and their family members should be emphasised. Multidisciplinary interventions by nurses and possibly other contributions from a widely available social support system might be effective in preventing repeated hospital readmissions of elderly patients with CHF. In this regard, special precautions have to be paid in the management of elderly patients to achieve effective treatment goals, and any treatment strategy has to be appropriately determined through a comprehensive assessment of patient clinical profiles. Multidisciplinary approaches to these problems have to be effectively utilised to improve patients' quality of life, while possibly reducing medical expenses.