Chronic heart failure, increasingly driven by coronary artery disease in an aging population, represents a major and growing public health burden.
Chronic heart failure (HF) affects 5 million patients in theUnited States and is responsible for 1 million hospi-talizations and 300 000 deaths annually. 1 The total annual costs associated with this disorder have been estimated to exceed 40 billion. 1, 2 Chronic HF is the only category of cardiovascular diseases for which the prevalence, incidence, hospitalization rate, total burden of mortality, and costs have increased in the past 25 years. 1, 2 Fueling this epidemic is the increasing number of elderly patients developing impaired left ventricular (LV) function as a manifestation of chronic coronary artery disease (CAD). 1, 2 With the aging of the population and decline in mortality of other forms of cardio-vascular diseases, it is likely that the incidence of HF and its impact on public health will continue to increase. 1–3 CAD and HF: Epidemiology and Prognosis In the past 3 decades, considerable attention has focused on
Gheorghiade et al. (Mon,) studied this question.