Vasodilate - Great, Hate, Wait, Debate, or Stalemate?

Acute heart failure remains a leading cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Numerical estimates of annual U.S. hospitalizations for acute heart failure and acute-on-chronic heart failure together number over 1.1 million. Rapid decongestion with intravenous diuretics or modulation of left ventricular afterload with vasodilators has long been a mainstay of acute heart failure treatment. Nevertheless, large randomized clinical trials of vasodilator therapies in acute heart failure have largely been neutral. In this issue of NEJM Evidence, Lukoschewitz et al. conducted a systematic review of randomized clinical trials of vasodilators in acute heart failure, studying a primary outcome of all-cause mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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