Heart Failure Guidelines

The 2009 revision of the ACC/AHA Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Management of Heart Failure in Adults contains a number of evidence-based updates, revised text, and a new section called "hospitalized patient" (Hunt et al. e395). These revisions are the result of a task force that convened in 2008 and represent new findings published between 2005 and 2008.

Four stages along a continuum of heart failure are described, with the first two stages representing patients having medical conditions that increase the risk of heart failure (Hunt et al. e396). Stage A patients may have atherosclerosis, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, metabolic syndrome, or have a family history of heart failure, but without structural heart disease (Hunt et al. e405-e408). Treatment strategies for Stage A patients include aggressive management of medical conditions and encouraging lifestyle changes. Stage A patients with vascular disease or diabetes may also benefit from ACE inhibitors...
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