Acute heart failure is the rapid onset or worsening of signs and symptoms of heart failure, reflecting the heart's sudden inability to maintain adequate cardiac output and pressures, with consequent congestion of the pulmonary and systemic circulations. It may present de novo or as acute decompensation of chronic he…
Acute heart failure is the rapid onset or worsening of signs and symptoms of heart failure, reflecting the heart's sudden inability to maintain adequate cardiac output and pressures, with consequent congestion of the pulmonary and systemic circulations. It may present de novo or as acute decompensation of chronic heart failure and arises from triggers such as myocardial ischaemia or infarction, hypertensive crisis, arrhythmia, valvular dysfunction or volume overload. Clinically it manifests as dyspnoea, pulmonary oedema, fatigue and peripheral oedema, and constitutes a medical emergency requiring prompt assessment and stabilisation. Pathophysiology involves impaired systolic or diastolic function, neurohormonal activation, and cardiorenal interaction, and the syndrome frequently coexists with renal dysfunction and other organ involvement. Evaluation combines clinical assessment, biomarkers, imaging and haemodynamic monitoring, while management targets congestion, the precipitating cause and underlying cardiac disease. Research collected under this term reflects related cardiac themes: assessment of cardiac function and sleep-disordered breathing, cardiorenal signalling pathways in heart failure, hypertensive crisis epidemiology and outcome, haemodilution in complex cardiac surgery, cardiac pathophysiology across reproductive stages, adrenomedullin as a multifunctional protein, gene therapy for heart failure, and renal function in acute myocardial infarction. The peer-reviewed literature in this area spans the precipitants, pathophysiology, cardiorenal interactions, evaluation and management of acute decompensation of cardiac function.
12 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.
The 12 articles above have been cited 26 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.
A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Acute Heart Failure, linking to each citing work.