Ileana Pirozzi

1 Introduction Cardiovascular disease acutely affects every sixth individual worldwide[1] with a total of 65 million suffering from chronic end-stage heart failure (HF).[2] HF is considered “the hidden epidemic” with patient numbers expected to increase steeply given the aging population.[3] HF is a chronic, progressive condition that describes the inability of the heart to pump enough blood to meet the body's requirements for oxygen and nutrients (see Figure 1 for a glossary of medical terms).