The year in cardiology 2016: heart failure

The current year has been mainly characterized by the publication in Europe of the guidelines on the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure (HF) and in USA by an update on pharmacological treatment of HF with the praiseworthy effort to provide consistent recommendations on drug therapy.1–3 Therefore, the large majority of new evidences published at the end of 2015 and in the first quarter of 2016 are included in these publications. However, as always happens, the scientific community has been provided, more recently, with additional relevant information from new studies very relevant for the management of patients with HF. The most important novel recommendations of the 2016 ESC guidelines on diagnosis and treatment of HF can be summarized in the following points.