ABSTRACT
Heart failure is a systemic disease caused by an impairment of efficient energy transfer in heart muscle. Clinically, heart failure exists when the heart fails in one or both of its primary functions: during diastole to receive blood into the ventricles under low pressure, during systole to propel blood into the systemic circulation under high pressure (Grossman W. Personal communication, 1995). Because the heart is both a consumer and provider of energy, a restriction in energy consumption (e.g., as it occurs in ischemic heart disease) results in impaired energy delivery to the rest of the body (2). Impaired energy delivery, in turn, causes adaptive and ultimately maladaptive responses of the organism as a whole.
