[Guideline satisfying therapy for chronic heart failure].

Chronic heart failure may be caused by systolic pump failure and/or impairment of diastolic filling of the ventricles. The standard pharmacotherapy for systolic heart failure includes an ACE inhibitor, betablocker, diuretics and, in patients with severe symptoms, a low dose aldosterone antagonist. An AT1 receptor blocker is indicated for those patients who do not tolerate ACE inhibitors. If patients remain in the functional class NYHA III-IV despite optimal medication and have cardiac dyssynchrony, biventricular pacing may improve the symptoms and prognosis. While evidence-based treatment significantly reduces morbidity and mortality in systolic heart failure, hardly any results from clinical trials are available for diastolic heart failure. Therefore, therapy in patients with diastolic heart failure remains in most cases empirical.