Heart failure in Africa: Continuity or change?

摘要

Death from heart failure (HF) in high-income countries is largely a problem of the very elderly with ischaemic heart disease. For example, in Olmsted County, Minnesota in 1991, the mean age of newly diagnosed heart failure patients was around 75 and almost half were over 80 years old.1 Two-thirds of these people had heart failure from coronary atherosclerosis. Vast resources are available to optimise the outcomes for these individuals. In 2010, the USA, with an estimated heart failure prevalence of 2.8%, spent approximately US$24.7 billion on medical care for this condition, almost US $2900 per heart failure patient, or US$80 per capita.2