Heart failure classifications - guidelines.

The clinical syndrome of heart failure is hugely heterogeneous. In this chapter, the authors discuss several distinct classifications of this syndrome that have been developed in order to better characterize an individual case and subsequently apply an optimal management. Classifications are based on the time course of the clinical presentation of heart failure, severity of symptoms and signs of heart failure, structural changes within the heart, predominant etiology and comorbidities. Copyright (c) 64\C S. Karger AG, Basel.