Classification of Heart Failure

The ability to accurately describe and classify the signs and symptoms of heart failure is critical to the study of and communication about the condition. This is particularly challenging in children in whom these variables change dramatically from infancy through adolescence. The ideal classification system would take into account these age-related changes as well as be reproducible and accurately reflect improvement with or without therapy or clinical worsening. It would be most useful if the system is correlated with risks and outcomes so that treatment could be tailored to the class and risk category. This chapter reviews the various systems used and proposed for achieving these goals.