Research Area: Heart Failure

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Heart failure is a chronic clinical condition resulting from an inability of the heart to pump adequate amounts of blood. The major symptoms of heart failure are breathlessness, fatigue and a decrease in exercise tolerance. Heart failure is not a single disease, but is the final result of many serious forms of heart disease. Common causes of heart failure in the United States include severe coronary artery disease, poorly controlled hypertension (high blood pressure), diseases of the heart valves, and a variety of other conditions. Approximately 50 percent of all heart failure cases are idiopathic, that is, there is no clear identifiable cause for the weakness of the heart.

In the past 10 years, there have been significant advances in treating heart failure, including increased use of blood pressure-lowering medications and cardiac transplantation. However, drugs only slow the progression of disease, and cardiac transplantation is limited by expense and availability of donor organs. Despite the importance of this condition to American health, scientists have only a limited understanding of why hearts fail.

Considered one of the key strengths in the Center, Heart Failure is now a major focus of the Center’s Training Program in Translational Cardiovascular Science, and forms the basis of one of the Center’s journal clubs.

UW Cardiovascular Research Center members involved in research in heart failure include the following: