Heart-brain interactions in heart failure involve reciprocal impacts between a failing myocardium and altered cerebral functions, affecting comorbidities, symptoms, and prognosis.
This position paper summarizes the reciprocal interactions between heart failure and pathological brain conditions, highlighting their impact on symptoms, comorbidities, and prognosis.
Heart failure (HF) is a complex disease with a growing incidence worldwide. HF is accompanied by a wide range of conditions which affect disease progression, functional performance and contribute to growing healthcare costs. The interactions between a failing myocardium and altered cerebral functions contribute to the symptoms experienced by patients with HF, affecting many comorbidities and causing a poor prognosis. This article provides a condensed version of the 2018 position paper from the Study Group on Heart and Brain Interaction of the Heart Failure Association. It addresses the reciprocal impact on HF of several pathological brain conditions, including acute and chronic low perfusion of the brain, and impairment of higher cortical and brain stem functions. Treatment-related interactions - medical, interventional and device-related - are also discussed.
Scherbakov et al. (Mon,) conducted a review in Heart failure. Heart-brain interactions in heart failure involve reciprocal impacts between a failing myocardium and altered cerebral functions, affecting comorbidities, symptoms, and prognosis.