The New York Heart Association classification provides a widely accepted descriptive approach to diagnosis, contrasting with the more complex physiological criteria of renal disease classifications.
To the Editor. —The establishment of an orderly method of diagnostic formation and communication is one aim of systems such as the New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification of heart disease, and the classification of renal diseases (August 1971 issues of theAnnals of Internal Medicine, Circulation, and theArchives). The NYHA classification with its descriptive approach (except the number-letter functional-therapeutic headings) gained wide acceptance and has been adopted by many physicians for more general use, eg, liver disease; etiology: alcoholism; anatomy: cirrhosis; physiology: increased portal pressure with varices, ascites, hepatorenal syndrome and precoma; functional class: IV; therapeutic class: E. The renal classification takes an alternate approach, demanding more precise classification of physiological changes, in a series of numbered and lettered groups. Though nephrologists may find themselves easily able to grasp the significance of a "II-C-3" patient, many people will find it hard to remember the rather precise criteria for
John D. Fisher (Mon,) conducted a letter in Heart disease. New York Heart Association (NYHA) classification vs. Renal disease classification was evaluated. The New York Heart Association classification provides a widely accepted descriptive approach to diagnosis, contrasting with the more complex physiological criteria of renal disease classifications.