Zannad F: Modern management of acute heart failure syndromes

Heart failure is an important and growing public health problem throughout the devel-oped world. Clinical interest has recently focused on acute heart failure syndromes (AHFS), which make a major contribution to the substantial financial and humanistic burden of disease. Despite the undoubted clinical importance of AHFS, no universally accepted definition of the condition exists and the first treatment guidelines remain to be published. The prognosis for patients with AHFS remains poor. Many acute thera-peutic interventions are yet to be validated in randomized controlled trials, although recent years have seen a number of large-scale studies and the introduction of several new treatment options. In contrast to AHFS, substantial progress has been made in developing management strategies for chronic heart failure, although use of well-established life-saving therapies remains suboptimal. A brief introduction to the current key issues in AHFS, which are discussed in more detail in this supplement, is provided in this paper