Abstract

Acute heart failure (AHF) has emerged as a major public health problem over the past 2 decades and AHF represents a period of high risk for patients, during which time the patients are more susceptible to have fatal outcomes or be re-hospitalized, compared to periods of chronic stable heart failure. The goals of AHF treatment are symptomatic relief and hemodynamic stabilization, which need accurate assessment of volume status and cardiac function of patients. Until now, there is a paucity of controlled clinical data to define optimal treatment for patients with AHF and most guidelines published by the American Heart Association or European Society of Cardiology have been generated by the consensus opinions of experts. In these guidelines, routine invasive hemodynamic monitoring of AHF patients is not recommended because there have not been any reports showing survival benefit in patients monitored with pulmonary artery catheters. At present, treatment strategies based on clinical characteristics such as pulmonary congestion and tissue hypoperfusion rather than invasive hemodynamic monitoring is widely accepted. In this article, we discuss an optimal management plan including appropriate assessment of the hemodynamic status of patients and treatment of AHF.

• Keywords: acute heart failure;hemodynamic monitoring;treatment;