Pathophysiology of heart failure

Heart failure is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity in Western countries. Common etiology is mostly represented by ischemic and hypertensive heart disease. Clinically, heart failure can be defined as an impaired cardiac performance, unable to meet the energy requirements of the periphery. Pathophysiologically, the clinical onset of heart failure symptoms already represents an advanced stage of disease when compensatory mechanisms triggered by the underlying decrease in contractility are no longer capable of maintaining adequate cardiac performance during exercise and, subsequently, under resting conditions. Independent of its underlying etiology, cardiac failure is always characterized by an impairment in the intrinsic contractility of myocytes. As a consequence of reduced contractility, a number of central and peripheral compensatory mechanisms take place that are capable of effectively counteracting reduced intravascular intrinsic performance for a long period of time. Among them, recruitment of preload reserve, enhanced neurohormonal stimulation and cardiac hypertrophy are the most important. All of them, however, also carry unfavorable effects that contribute to further deterioration of cardiac function. In fact, increased end-diastolic volume determines increased wall stress that further reduces systolic performance; sympathetic and angiotensin stimulation increases peripheral resistance and contributes to increase volume expansion; hypertrophic myocytes demonstrate impaired intrinsic contractility and relaxation, and hypertrophy causes a clinically relevant deterioration of ventricular relaxation and compliance that substantially participates in increased end-diastolic pressure, and, therefore, to limited exercise performance. Diastolic dysfunction usually accompanies systolic dysfunction, although in some cases it may represent the prevalent mechanism of congestive heart failure in patients in whom systolic performance is preserved. Biological causes of reduced contractility in heart failure are not completely elucidated. Changes in myosin composition and in sarcoplasmic ATPase activity, causing reduced Ca2+ availability during contraction, have been reported, although their exact contribution is not clear. Recently, impaired endothelial function has also been described in heart failure, and new appealing hypotheses have been made regarding the causative role of circulating cytokines like tumor necrosis factor in the pathogenesis of heart failure.