Chronic Heart Failure: We Are Fighting the Battle, but Are We Winning the War?

Figure 2

In situations where we can reliably detect disease (e.g., left ventricular systolic dysfunction) in properly conducted diagnostic screening studies, coupled with high-level evidence (preferably from randomized, controlled trials) that we can improve clinical outcomes in individuals with the same disease in treatment efficacy studies, then we can link the two to determine the clinical effectiveness of a screening strategy. LVSD = left ventricular systolic dysfunction; ECG = electrocardiogram; SOLVD-P = studies of left ventricular dysfunction-prevention [21, 22].