Citation

Triposkiadis F, Butler J, Abboud FM, Armstrong PW, Adamopoulos S, Atherton JJ, Backs J, Bauersachs J, Burkhoff D, Bonow RO, Chopra VK, de Boer RA, de Windt L, Hamdani N, Hasenfuss G, Heymans S, Hulot JS, Konstam M, Lee RT, Linke WA, Lunde IG, Lyon AR, Maack C, Mann DL, Mebazaa A, Mentz RJ, Nihoyannopoulos P, Papp Z, Parissis J, Pedrazzini T, Rosano G, Rouleau J, Seferovic PM, Shah AM, Starling RC, Tocchetti CG, Trochu JN, Thum T, Zannad F, Brutsaert DL, Segers VF, De Keulenaer GW. 2019. The continuous heart failure spectrum: moving beyond an ejection fraction classification. European heart journal. 40(26):2155-2163. Pubmed: 30957868 DOI:10.1093/eurheartj/ehz158

Abstract

Randomized clinical trials initially used heart failure (HF) patients with low left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) to select study populations with high risk to enhance statistical power. However, this use of LVEF in clinical trials has led to oversimplification of the scientific view of a complex syndrome. Descriptive terms such as 'HFrEF' (HF with reduced LVEF), 'HFpEF' (HF with preserved LVEF), and more recently 'HFmrEF' (HF with mid-range LVEF), assigned on arbitrary LVEF cut-off points, have gradually arisen as separate diseases, implying distinct pathophysiologies. In this article, based on pathophysiological reasoning, we challenge the paradigm of classifying HF according to LVEF. Instead, we propose that HF is a heterogeneous syndrome in which disease progression is associated with a dynamic evolution of functional and structural changes leading to unique disease trajectories creating a spectrum of phenotypes with overlapping and distinct characteristics. Moreover, we argue that by recognizing the spectral nature of the disease a novel stratification will arise from new technologies and scientific insights that will shape the design of future trials based on deeper understanding beyond the LVEF construct alone.
Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author(s) 2019. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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Rich Lee seeks to understand heart failure and metabolic diseases that accompany human aging, and translate that understanding into therapies. Lee is an active clinician, regularly treating patients at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

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