Heart Failure in the Background of Ischemic Heart Disease: Some Issues of Epidemiology, Pathogenesis and Treatment

One of the main postulates of medicine is that optimal treatment of a disease is impossible without knowing its cause. However, this principle is difficult to apply when it comes to chronic heart failure (CHF). This is due to the fact that, although the diseases that lead to the development of CHF are numerous and varied, the final outcome for all is the same - decompensation of cardiac activity. There is an illusion that the cause of CHF is no longer important and the treatment is the same in all cases: be it ischemic heart disease (IHD), dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) or hypertensive heart. However, this is not true. Any disease underlying CHF has its own characteristics that leave an imprint on the course of heart failure, its therapy and prognosis. This is especially true for such a common and serious disease as ischemic heart disease.