Heart Failure Facts

  1. Heart failure has a 5-year survival rate, worse than most common cancers (prostate, breast, lymphoma).
  2. Quality of life is affected more harshly by heart failure than by most chronic illnesses (such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and rheumatoid arthritis).
  3. Effective oral triple therapy (ace-inhibitor / ar blocker + beta-blocker + aldosterone antagonist) is still under-prescribed and inadequately dosed in heart failure.
  4. We do not know the prevalence of heart failure in South Africa.
  5. Hypertension is a reversible cause of heart failure.
  6. Sudden death remains an important cause of mortality in heart failure.
  7. Serum sodium < 135 mmol/l remains  a cheap, effective indicator of a poor prognosis.
  8. Close surveillance and management by a heart failure specialist / team significantly improves well being and prognosis in heart failure patients.
  9. Avoid another preganancy in a patient who experienced heart failure with her pregnancy, even if LV function has fully recovered.
  10. Beware hyperkalaemia after addition of an aldosterone antagonist to background heart failure therapy and remember to reduce potassium replacement.