Recent advances in treatment and the future problems to be solved

The goal of the treatment of chronic heart failure is improvement of patient's prognosis and QOL. To achieve this goal, new pharmacological and nonpharmacological approaches have been developed. ACE inhibitor - and beta-blocker-treatment added to the standard therapy has been established to improve the prognosis, and ICD, cardiac resynchronization treatment (CRT) with biventricular pacing and LV assist device also contribute to the advances in the therapeutic progress. However, recent clinical trials for the new drugs which antagonize the endothelin receptors and TNF receptors failed to demonstrate the benefit of these new drugs. Establishment of the therapeutic strategies for treatment of diastolic heart failure is also another problem to be solved.