Pathophysiology of Heart Failure and an Overview of Therapies

Heart failure (HF) is a highly complex clinical syndrome, culminating from a diversity of environmental and genetic etiologies that compromise pump function, ultimately resulting in insufficient blood flow to the body. Despite the initial disease in the heart, the pathophysiology of HF evolves to affect multiple organ systems throughout the body, primarily the renal, autonomic, vascular, and cardiac system. The structural and functional underpinnings of HF are diverse and accompanied by various cellular changes that compromised cardiomyocyte function and survival to alter cardiac tissue. The progressive nature of HF and an expanding understanding of the intracellular molecular and biochemical changes that accompany this condition has allowed for the development of both surgical and pharmacological approaches to therapeutic management of HF. This chapter provides an overview of the contemporary knowledge regarding HF, spanning physiology to molecular events in the cardiomyocyte, and current therapeutic approaches used in the clinic.