Heart failure: A story of damage, fatigue and injury?

Abstract

Heart failure has been recognised for years but the complete picture has been difficult to clearly understand. This article aims to try and put forward a proposed mechanistic explanation to encompass all that we see within the clinical heart failure syndrome using supporting published evidence. The aim of the article is to link, using published evidence, all the known varieties of heart failure into a spectrum that is explained by simple interlinked processes. In addition, the concept of routinely looking for reversibility of left ventricular dysfunction is introduced.