Cognitive impairment in chronic heart failure. How new therapeutic options for the treatment of chronic heart failure affect cognitive function?

Abstract

Heart failure is a serious chronic illness and a global healthcare problem. Patients with heart failure have increased hospital readmission rates and mortality around the world. Heart failure often coexists with comorbidities of which cognitive impairment is particularly important. Сognitive impairment is present in around 30% to 80% in heart failure decreases quality of life and increases the frequency of repeated hospitalizations, increases mortality and worsens the prognosis in such patients. Despite existing research, the underlying pathophysiology of the relationship between heart failure and cognitive impairment remains poorly understood. The article discusses the best available evidence concerning different pathophysiological mechanisms behind cognitive impairment in individuals with heart failure. Heart failure and cognitive impairment have a number of common pathophysiological pathways including reduced cerebral blood flow, inflammation, neurohumoral activations, oxidative stress and changes in serum biomarkers or proteins. Understanding the pathophysiology of diseases will allow the effective evaluation of health status and development of suitable treatments. Prompt detection of cognitive impairment will bring about better clinical outcomes in heart failure patients. This review raises questions about the relationship between heart failure and cognitive dysfunction, provides evidence on the impact of new therapeutic options for treating heart failure on cognitive function, and suggests potential future research directions. For example, implantation of an artificial left ventricle may improve cognitive function; however, there are studies on immediate improvement in cognitive function followed by gradual deterioration over time after implantation of an artificial left ventricle, which requires long-term study In addition, evidence is provided for the effectiveness of using a relaxation scenario in virtual reality technology to reduce anxiety and affective complaints in somatic hospitalized patients, but the ability to improve cognitive function in patients with chronic heart failure remains to be explored.

Keywords

• heart failure
• cognitive impairment
• cognitive dysfunction
• pathophysiology
• virtual reality