[Heart failure. New concepts, new medications].

It is possible, in our midst, to obtain a survival rate of 68% and a marked improvement in the functional capacity of patients with advanced cardiac insufficiency due to systolic myocardial dysfunction through the combined use of ACE inhibitors, diuretics and digitalis as the main therapeutic agents. Patients with cardiac failure due to atherosclerotic heart disease have a slight better prognosis than those whose failure is secondary to dilated idiopathic congestive cardiomyopathy. The incidence of arrhythmias, sudden death and peripheral embolism suggest that the use of Amiodarone as antiarrhythmic agent and of Warfarin as anticoagulant should be increased. Each of these agents was used in only 26% of our patients.