Heart failure

Heart failure is one of the most common diagnoses among hospital admissions in Germany and affects several million people – with a rising tendency.¹ It should be taken seriously: in community-based studies, more than 40 % of those affected do not survive the first five years after diagnosis² – at the same time, its course can be influenced all the better the earlier it is detected and its cause treated. The most common cause is a narrowing of the coronary arteries by deposits (= CAD = coronary artery disease),¹ which – together with its secondary conditions such as heart failure and cardiac arrhythmias – accounts for up to around 190,000 deaths per year and is the most common cause of death in Germany.⁴ How often this coronary artery disease develops unnoticed over a long period was shown by the REACT study in 2026 – in around 57 % of symptom-free adults, vascular deposits were already found.⁸ Crucial for diagnosis and treatment is the precise measurement of the ejection fraction: echocardiography is the basic examination, while cardiac MRI is regarded as the reference method for the exact, reproducible determination of ejection fraction and cardiac volumes.⁵ In addition, through tissue characterization cardiac MRI makes scarring, inflammation or storage diseases visible – often the key to the cause – entirely without radiation exposure.⁶ And cardiac CT rules out a coronary cause non-invasively.⁷ Whether and which examination is appropriate in your case, we will clarify together based on your individual risk profile.