Mechanisms of sympathetic activation in heart failure

Abstract

1. Heart Failure (HF) is a serious, debilitating condition with poor survival rates and an increasing level of prevalence. A characteristic of HF is a compensatory neurohumoral activation that increases with the severity of the condition. 2. The increase in sympathetic activity may be beneficial initially, providing inotropic support to the heart and peripheral vasoconstriction, but in the longer term it promotes disease progression and worsens prognosis. This is particularly true for the increase in cardiac sympathetic nerve activity, as shown by the strong inverse correlation between cardiac noradrenaline spillover and prognosis and by the beneficial effect of β-adrenoceptor antagonists. 3..