title: [How I explore...a patient with chronic heart failure].
abstract: Heart failure is defined by precise criteria associating clinical signs and cardiac abnormalities. The exploration for signs and symptoms must be associated with the systematic realization of an electrocardiogram, a chest X-ray and an echocardiogram to rapidly obtain the diagnosis and direct the patient to an adapted complementary clarification. Other additional tests are available (catheterization, nuclear cardiology imaging,...). The purpose is to confirm the diagnosis, to determine the aetiology and to identify factors of poor prognosis.
authors.affiliation: Service de Cardiologie, CHU de Liège, Belgique.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ancion
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nellessen
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lancelloti
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Piérard
mesh_terms: D003935:Diagnostic Techniques, Cardiovascular; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis