Multifactor heart failure in the elderly: a proposal for cooperative research

Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a clinical syndrome as a common pathway at the end stage of cardiac diseases of different etiologies, and it is currently the only cardiovas-cular disease with an increasing prevalence in the devel-oped countries. In the United States, the prevalence of CHF at age 50 years is 1.0%, whereas it reaches 7.5% at age 80 years. In the United Kingdom, the prevalence of CHF is 5.0% at age 60-70 years, and 10-20% at age 80 years. The situation is similar in Italy and Portugal. Despite being a developing country in Asia, China has experienced rapid progress in acquiring medical knowledge and advancing techniques in recent years. Due to the markedly declined mortality of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) as well as the aging of Chinese population, about four million Chi-nese have CHF with a prevalence of 0.9%, most of whom are 60 years of age and older.