The 19 chapters which comprise this text cover all aspects of heart failure, and are extremely readable and well-organized. The references selected for each chapter are highly sufficient and there is excellent coverage of all the pharmaceutical treatments, which have proven effective in the management of heart failure; moreover, there are chapters on the non-pharmacological management as well. The book instructs the physician in how to use the newer drugs, either singly or in combination and the clinical trials chapter gives the reader a balanced view of what is happening in research.

This issue of Heart Failure Clinics, guest edited by Drs. Giuseppe Pacileo, Daniele Masarone, Francesco Grigioni and Luciano Potena, will cover key topics in Advanced Heart Failure: From Pathophysiology to Clinical Management. This issue is one of four issues selected each year by our series consulting editor, Dr. Eduardo Bossone. Topics discussed in this issue include (but are not limited to): Pathophysiology of advanced heart failure: what I need to know for clinical management?, Advanced heart failure: definition, epidemiology and clinical course, Echocardiography in advanced heart failure: beyond diagnosis, Disease modifier drugs in patients with advanced heart failure: How to optimize their use?, Congestion in patients with advanced heart failure: Assessment and treatment, Inotropes in patients with advanced heart failure: Not only palliative care, Cardiac resynchronization therapy and cardiac contractility modulation in patients with advanced heart failure: How to select the right candidate?, Mitral and tricuspid valves percutaneous repair in patients with advanced heart failure: Panacea, or Pandora's box?, Left ventricular assist device: Indication, timing and management, Listing criteria for heart transplant: Role of cardiopulmonary exercise test and of prognostic scores, Right heart catheterization in patients with advanced heart failure: when to perform, how to interpreter?, Advanced heart failure in special population: Cardiomyopathies, Advanced heart failure in special population: Pediatric age, Advanced heart failure in special population: Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and Treatment of advanced heart failure: What future holds?. - Provides in-depth, clinical reviews on advanced heart failure, providing actionable insights for clinical practice. - Presents the latest information on this timely, focused topic under the leadership of experienced editors in the field; Authors synthesize and distill the latest research and practice guidelines to create these timely topic-based reviews.

For many years, there has been a great deal of work done on chronic congestive heart failure while acute heart failure has been considered a difficult to handle and hopeless syndrome. However, in recent years acute heart failure has become a growing area of study and this is the first book to cover extensively the diagnosis and management of this complex condition. The book reflects the considerable amounts of new data reported and many new concepts which have been proposed in the last 3-4 years looking at the epidemiology, diagnostic and treatment of acute heart failure.

This issue of Heart Failure Clinics, edited by Drs. Ragavendra R. Baliga and Umesh C. Samal, will focus on Recent Advances in Management of Heart Failure. Topics include, but are not limited to, Neprilysin Inhibition on Systolic HF, If Channel Inhibitor Ivabradine in Heart Failure, Growth Hormone Therapy in Heart Failure, Ultrafiltration in Heart Failure, Aldosterone Receptor Blockade in Diastolic HF, Intravenous Iron Therapy in HF, Management of Secondary Pulmonary Hypertension, Management of Chemotherapy Induced Cardiomyopathy, Management of HF in Adult Congenital Heart Disease, LVADS in Heart Failure, Short Term Circulatory & Right Ventricle support in Cardiogenic Shock, Mitral Valve Repair in HF, Total Artificial Heart, Current Status of Inotropes in Heart Failure, Palliative Therapy in Heart Failure, Subcutaneous ICDs and Leadless Pacemakers, Interventional Heart Failure and Hemodynamic Monitoring, and Management of Sleep Apnea in Heart Failure.

This book systematically focuses on central sleep apneas, analyzing their relationship especially with heart failure and discussing recent research results and emerging treatment strategies based on feedback modulation. The opening chapters present historical background information on Cheyne-Stokes respiration (CSR), clarify terminology, and explain the mechanics and chemistry of respiration. Following a description of the physiology of respiration, the pathophysiology underlying central apneas in different disorders and particularly in heart failure is discussed. The similarities and differences of obstructive and central apneas are then considered. The book looks beyond the concept of sleep apnea to daytime CSR and periodic breathing during effort and contrasts the opposing views of CSR as a compensatory phenomenon or as detrimental to the failing heart. The diagnostic tools currently in use for the detection of CSR are thoroughly reviewed, with guidance on interpretation of findings. The book concludes by describing the various forms of treatment that are available for CSR and by explaining how to select patients for treatment.

This open access textbook represents a vital contribution to global health education, offering insights into health promotion as part of patient care for bachelor’s and master’s students in health care (nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, radiotherapists, social care workers etc.) as well as health care professionals, and providing an overview of the field of health science and health promotion for PhD students and researchers. Written by leading experts from seven countries in Europe, America, Africa and Asia, it first discusses the theory of health promotion and vital concepts. It then presents updated evidence-based health promotion approaches in different populations (people with chronic diseases, cancer, heart failure, dementia, mental disorders, long-term ICU patients, elderly individuals, families with newborn babies, palliative care patients) and examines different health promotion approaches integrated into primary care services. This edited scientific anthology provides much-needed knowledge, translating research into guidelines for practice. Today’s medical approaches are highly developed; however, patients are human beings with a wholeness of body-mind-spirit. As such, providing high-quality and effective health care requires a holistic physical-psychological-social-spiritual model of health care is required. A great number of patients, both in hospitals and in primary health care, suffer from the lack of a holistic oriented health approach: Their condition is treated, but they feel scared, helpless and lonely. Health promotion focuses on improving people’s health in spite of illnesses. Accordingly, health care that supports/promotes patients’ health by identifying their health resources will result in better patient outcomes: shorter hospital stays, less re-hospitalization, being better able to cope at home and improved well-being, which in turn lead to lower health-care costs. This scientific anthology is the first of its kind, in that it connects health promotion with the salutogenic theory of health throughout the chapters. the authors here expand the understanding of health promotion beyond health protection and disease prevention. The book focuses on describing and explaining salutogenesis as an umbrella concept, not only as the key concept of sense of coherence.

Arterial hypertension, coronary heart disease and heart fail ure are the commonest cardiovascular conditions to present in clinical practice. Over the past few years it has become in creasingly clear that they are closely and causally interrelated and that their relationship can have a significant bearing on prognosis. Epidemiological studies have shown that arterial hypertension is one of the most important risk factors for de veloping heart failure. Only one in four patients with hyper tension is adequately managed, and in 50% of cases, the hypertension has not been recognised or treated. Patients with pre-existing hypertension who go on to suffer an acute myocardial infarction have usually not previously had typi cal angina symptoms, the infarct territory is larger, life threatening arrhythmias are commoner and hence in-hospi tal mortality and long-term prognosis are markedly worse. The presence of raised blood pressure in the post-infarct phase doubles the risk of manifest heart failure. The close relationship between hypertension, coronary heart disease and heart failure makes the choice of therapeu tic strategy particularly important. Agents and classes of agents that have prognostic value in all three conditions should be considered first, as synergy might result in addi tional benefits. In such patients, this sort of therapeutic deci sion-making might have further advantages. The use of these agents may prevent complications which are not yet clinically obvious (such as heart failure).