Musings of a Cardiologist

The above graph shows the 5 year survival of heart failure patients compared to the most common types of cancer among Scottish patients in 1991. Its clear from the above diagram that the mortality of heart failure is clearly worse than that of the most common types of cancer. In the Framingham study it was found that only 25% of the men and 32% of the women survived more than 5 years from the diagnosis of heart failure. Hence this fact should be a somber reminder of the importance of early diagnosis and treatment initiation for all patients experiencing symptoms of heart failure. On a brighter note the mortality from heart failure has seen a decreasing trend recently with the advent of new device or medical therapies.