ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION As the incidence and diversity of heart failure has increased, so too has the complexity of therapy and variability in outcome. Mortality from heart failure has been reported to range from less than 5% to over 75% per year. The natural history of heart failure has changed dramatically as medical therapy has improved and physicians are armed with life-prolonging medications and devices to alter the course of the disease. These advancements, although welcome, have made it more complicated to predict the risk of death or other major cardiovascular events in a given patient with heart failure.
