Insuficiencia cardíaca: Aspectos básicos de una epidemia en aumento.

Heart failure is a great public health problem in the world, either by its increasing prevalence, or the cost for a proper treatment. Heart Failure is a complex problem resulting from a structural or functional disorder that impairs the ventricular filling and ejection of blood ability. It is also characterized by the presence of cardinal symptoms such as dyspnea, fatigue and fluid retention. The main causes of heart failure are ischemic heart disease, hypertensive heart disease, dilated cardiomyopathy and valvular heart disease. In the initial stages, cardiac function at rest may be regular but it does not properly increase with exercise; in advanced stages it becomes abnormal even at rest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]