ACC/AHA publish new heart failure management guidelines

The ACC and the AHA have issued new heart failure management guidelines. The updated guidelines emphasize early diagnosis by classifying the condition in stages and also change the name of the condition from congestive heart failure to heart failure to reflect the broad spectrum of the disease.The document is available on the websites of the ACC and the AHA and will be published in the Sept. 20, 2005, issues of JACC and Circulation.The ACC and the AHA first published guidelines for the evaluation and management of HF in 1995 and published revised guidelines in 2001. The writing group notes that since 2001, a great deal of progress has been made in the development of both pharmacological and nonpharmacological approaches to treatment. The updated guidelines emphasize early diagnosis by classifying the condition in stages, from the presence of risk factors to end-stage disease. The guidelines denote four stages of heart failure:...