How to assess the severity of heart failure?

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Mortality rates for acute decompensated heart failure and cardiogenic shock remain unacceptably high despite advances in medical therapy and mechanical circulatory support. Systems designed to quickly and accurately identify and risk stratify these patients are needed in order to improve survival.

RECENT FINDINGS: The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions developed an expert consensus statement aimed at early identification and assessment of patients with advanced heart failure and cardiogenic shock. Recent studies have validated this novel classification system within several large patient cohorts.

SUMMARY: Assessing the severity of heart failure is a critical step in enabling the targeting of appropriate therapies to the appropriate patients. A novel classification system allows for accurate and reproducible identification and risk stratification.