title: Pharmacotherapy for comorbidities in chronic heart failure: a focus on hematinic deficiencies, diabetes mellitus and hyperkalemia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Chronic heart failure (HF) is frequently accompanied by one or more comorbidities. The presence of comorbidities in chronic HF is strongly correlated to HF severity and impaired outcome.
  
  
  METHODS
  This review will address several comorbidities with high prevalence and/or high impact in patients with chronic HF, including diabetes, anemia, hematinic deficiencies, and hyperkalemia. The background and subsequent pharmacotherapeutic options of these comorbidities will be discussed. For this review, a MEDLINE search was performed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Heart failure is increasingly considered a multimorbid syndrome, including metabolic derangements and chronic inflammation. Persistent metabolic derangements and low-grade inflammation might lead to progression of HF and the development of comorbidities. Although several comorbidity-specific drugs became available in the past decade, most of these therapies are studied in relatively small cohorts using surrogate end-points. Therefore, larger studies are needed to address whether treating these comorbidities will improve patient outcome in chronic HF.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Cardiology , University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen , Groningen , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Haye H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: van der Wal
authors.affiliation: a Department of Cardiology , University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen , Groningen , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Niels
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Grote Beverborg
authors.affiliation: a Department of Cardiology , University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen , Groningen , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Dirk J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: van Veldhuisen
authors.affiliation: a Department of Cardiology , University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen , Groningen , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Adriaan A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Voors
authors.affiliation: a Department of Cardiology , University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen , Groningen , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: van der Meer
mesh_terms: D000740:Anemia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology; D002908:Chronic Disease; D015897:Comorbidity; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology; D006397:Hematinics / Q000008:administration & dosage; D006801:Humans; D006947:Hyperkalemia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents / Q000008:administration & dosage
chemical_list: D006397:Hematinics; D007004:Hypoglycemic Agents
keywords: Heart failure; anemia; comorbidities; diabetes mellitus; folic acid; hematinics; hyperkalemia; iron deficiency; vitamin B12