Early Identification of Asymptomatic Subjects at Increased Risk of Heart Failure and Cardiovascular Events: Progress and Future Directions

Abstract

Increasing evidence for a latent, preclinical phase of cardiac pathology prior to the development of symptomatic heart failure has fuelled interest in the potential of developing a screening program for early disease detection and intervention.Cardiac biomarkers have shown promise in identifying subjects with significant left ventricular dysfunction and more recently to assist in cardiovascular risk stratification. However, a number of questions remain regarding the use of these biomarkers for screening purposes. In particular, appropriate cut-off levels and adjustment for individual patient characteristics still need to be established and further cost-effectiveness studies are required befo..