Edema mechanisms in the patient with heart failure and treatment options.

Volume overload is a common accompanying feature of heart failure. The mechanistic basis for volume overload in heart failure is incompletely worked out. An important component of heart failure treatment remains diuretic therapy. Diuretic dosing remains as much an art as a science with multiple environmental and disease state-related factors influencing the efficiency with which a diuretic works. In heart failure, diuretics should always be given in the lowest possible dose with careful attention to reducing dietary sodium intake.