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Review
. 2020 Jun 4;32(2):236-241.
doi: 10.37616/2212-5043.1040. eCollection 2020.

Heart Failure in the Middle East Arab Countries: Current and Future Perspectives

Abdelfatah A Elasfar  1   2 , Waleed Alhabeeb  3 , Salma Elasfar  4
Affiliations
Review

Heart Failure in the Middle East Arab Countries: Current and Future Perspectives

Abdelfatah A Elasfar et al. J Saudi Heart Assoc. .

Abstract

For many years, data about heart failure (HF) was only limited to Western countries but in the last few years, well designed heart failure registries have been conducted in many developing countries. The purpose of this review is to summarize the current status regarding the epidemiology and management of heart failure in Middle East Arab countries (MEACs) by analysis of the results of the latest HF registries performed in these countries and to anticipate future perspectives, quality initiatives and areas of research and development. Data has shown that the average age of affected individuals is at least 10 years younger than their Western counterparts. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction was generally under-represented in these registries to less than 30% of the whole population of heart failure. Coronary artery disease (CAD) constitutes about 55% of causes of heart failure in this region in comparison to about 70% in Western countries. An area that needs development is the investment in establishing specialized heart failure programs to cut the circle of non-compliance and repeated HF admissions to the hospitals. Advances in heart transplantation and mechanical circulatory support will continue to slow down and we are not expecting major changes in the near future but on the other hand, implantation of electronic devices like ICD and CRT is expected to increase significantly in the coming years in these countries.

Keywords: Arab countries; Epidemiology; Heart failure.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Distribution of heart failure causes in 5 of the heart failure registries in Arab countries. HEARTS AC, HEARTS acute; HEARTS CH, HEARTS chronic; EGY AC, Egyptian acute; EGY CH, Egyptian chronic; IHD, ischemic heart disease; DCM, dilated cardiomyopathy; HTN, hypertension; VHD, valvular heart disease.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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