New trends in drug treatment of heart failure in old age

Abstract

Heart failure (HF) is a complex clinical syndrome, with high prevalence in the elderly. The World Heath Organization (WHO) predicts that by 2050 the population aged over 80 years will account around 400 million, reflecting that HF will still represent a major public health concern. Improved management of cardiovascular diseases and HF, together with the increased life expectancy explains, at least in part, the high prevalence of HF especially in the elderly. Beside the canonical therapy for HF failure, including angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, angiotensin receptor blockers, beta-blockers and aldosterone antagonists, new potential and promising therapies, such as sacubitril/valsartan, iron deficiency treatment and serelaxine, are emerging also in elderly HF patients. In this review we focus on the classical recommended HF therapy and the possible application of new trends in elderly.