Professional paper

https://doi.org/10.15836/ccar2016.71

Treatment of Terminal Heart Failure in Grown Up Congenital Heart Disease.

Daniel Lovrić ; University of Zagreb School of Medicine, University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia

Abstract

Heart failure (HF) is the leading mortality cause in adult congenital heart disease patients, but this problem is very often overlooked in these patients due to good tolerance of symptoms as well as low expectations for functional capacity in many of those patients. Although neurohormonal activation follows the same pattern as does HF in acquired disease, the cornerstones of medical therapy have failed to provide signi cant bene ts in mortality reduction, most probably due to a very diverse range of causes for HF that are present in different morphologies of congenital heart disease, as well as connected to speci c surgical treatments. Heart transplantation can be performed in patients with terminal HF, but detecting those and determining the optimal moment for enlisting is problematic due to the low sensitivity of currently applied functional testing methods to detect change between a steady state of low functional capacity and deterioration. B-type natriuretic peptide blood test is a good marker of prognosis and deterioration and should be monitored on a regular basis in these patients.

Keywords

grown-up congenital heart disease; heart failure; heart transplantation

Hrčak ID:

153677

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/153677

Publication date:

23.2.2016.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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