Editing Heart failure (section)

==History==

For centuries, the disease entity which would include many cases of what today would be called heart failure was ''dropsy''; the term denotes generalized edema, a major manifestation of a failing heart, though also caused by other diseases. Writings of ancient civilizations include evidence of their acquaintance with dropsy and heart failure: Egyptians were the first to use [[bloodletting]] to relieve fluid accumulation and shortage of breath, and provided what may have been the first documented observations on heart failure in the [[Ebers papyrus]] (around 1500 BCE).<ref name="pmid16911907">{{cite journal | vauthors=Saba MM, Ventura HO, Saleh M, Mehra MR | title=Ancient Egyptian medicine and the concept of heart failure. | journal=J Card Fail | year=2006 | volume=12 | issue=6 | pages=416–21 | pmid=16911907 | doi=10.1016/j.cardfail.2006.03.001 | pmc= | url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16911907 | access-date=13 March 2021 | archive-date=9 August 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230809061730/https://www.onlinejcf.com/article/S1071-9164(06)00135-7/fulltext | url-status=live }}</ref> Greeks described cases of dyspnea, fluid retention and fatigue compatible with heart failure.<ref name="pmid8502981">{{cite journal | vauthors = Nolan J | title = A historical review of heart failure | journal = Scottish Medical Journal | volume = 38 | issue = 2 | pages = 53–7 | date = April 1993 | pmid = 8502981 | pmc =  | doi = 10.1177/003693309303800208 | s2cid = 5216806 }}</ref>

Romans used the flowering plant ''[[Drimia maritima]]'' (sea squill), which contains [[cardiac glycoside]]s, for the treatment of dropsy;<ref name="pmid15685783">{{cite journal | vauthors = Norn S, Kruse PR | title = [Cardiac glycosides: From ancient history through Withering's foxglove to endogeneous cardiac glycosides] | journal = Dansk Medicinhistorisk Arbog | volume =  | issue =  | pages = 119–32 | year = 2004 | pmid = 15685783 | pmc =  | doi =  }}</ref> descriptions pertaining to heart failure are also known in the civilizations of ancient India and China.<ref name="pmid31620262">{{cite journal | vauthors = Hajar R | title = Congestive Heart Failure: A History | journal = Heart Views | volume = 20 | issue = 3 | pages = 129–132 | year = 2019 | pmid = 31620262 | pmc = 6791096 | doi = 10.4103/HEARTVIEWS.HEARTVIEWS_77_19 | doi-access = free }}</ref> However, the manifestations of failing heart were understood in the context of these peoples' medical theories – including ancient Egyptian religion, [[Hippocrates|Hippocratic]] [[theory of Humours|theory of humours]], or ancient [[Ayurveda#History|Indian]] and [[Traditional Chinese medicine|Chinese medicine]], and the current concept of heart failure had not developed yet.<ref name="pmid8502981"/><ref name="pmid31620262"/> Although shortage of breath had been connected to heart disease by [[Avicenna]] round 1000 CE,<ref name="pmid31980269">{{cite journal | vauthors = Bestetti RB, Cardinalli-Neto A, Couto LB | title = The history of the evolution of the knowledge about the diagnosis and the pathogenetic aspects of heart failure: From the Egyptians to James Mackenzie | journal = International Journal of Cardiology | volume = 304 | issue =  | pages = 109–115 | date = April 2020 | pmid = 31980269 | pmc =  | doi = 10.1016/j.ijcard.2019.12.050 | s2cid = 210890303 }}</ref> decisive for modern understanding of the nature of the condition were the description of [[pulmonary circulation]] by [[Ibn al-Nafis]] in the 13th century, and of [[circulatory system|systemic circulation]] by [[William Harvey]] in 1628.<ref name="pmid8502981"/>

The role of the heart in fluid retention began to be better appreciated, as ''dropsy of the chest'' (fluid accumulation in and around the lungs causing shortness of breath) became more familiar and the current concept of heart failure, which brings together swelling and shortage of breath due to fluid retention, began to be accepted, in the 17th and especially in the 18th century: [[Richard Lower (physician)|Richard Lower]] linked dyspnea and foot swelling in 1679, and [[Giovanni Maria Lancisi]] connected jugular vein distention with right ventricular failure in 1728.<ref name="pmid31980269"/> Dropsy attributable to other causes, e.g. kidney failure, was differentiated in the 19th century.<ref name="pmid4896254">{{cite journal | vauthors = Jarcho S | title = An Eighteenth Century treatise on dropsy of the chest (Buchner, 1742) | journal = Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine | volume = 45 | issue = 8 | pages = 799–806 | date = August 1969 | pmid = 4896254 | pmc = 1750442 | doi =  }}</ref><ref name="pmid9185118">{{cite journal | vauthors = Eknoyan G | title = A history of edema and its management | journal =   Kidney International. Supplement| volume = 59 | issue =  | pages = S118–26 | date = June 1997 | pmid = 9185118 | pmc =  | doi =  }}</ref><ref name="pmid13437417">{{cite journal | vauthors = White PD | title = The evolution of our knowledge about the heart and its diseases since 1628 | journal = Circulation | volume = 15 | issue = 6 | pages = 915–23 | date = June 1957 | pmid = 13437417 | pmc =  | doi = 10.1161/01.cir.15.6.915 | doi-access = free }}</ref> The stethoscope, invented by [[René Laennec]] in 1819, [[x-ray]]s, discovered by [[Wilhelm Röntgen]] in 1895, and [[electrocardiography]], described by [[Willem Einthoven]] in 1903, facilitated the investigation of heart failure.<ref name="Davis_2000" /><ref name="pmid13437417"/>

The 19th century also saw experimental and conceptual advances in the physiology of heart contraction, which led to the formulation of the [[Frank-Starling law]] of the heart (named after physiologists [[Otto Frank (physiologist)|Otto Frank]] and [[Ernest Starling]]), a remarkable advance in understanding mechanisms of heart failure.<ref name="pmid28510104">{{cite journal | vauthors = Sequeira V, van der Velden J | title = Historical perspective on heart function: the Frank–Starling Law | journal = Biophysical Reviews | volume = 7 | issue = 4 | pages = 421–447 | date = December 2015 | pmid = 28510104 | pmc = 5418489 | doi = 10.1007/s12551-015-0184-4 }}</ref>

One of the earliest treatments of heart failure, relief of swelling by bloodletting with various methods, including [[Hirudo medicinalis#Medical use|leeches]], continued through the centuries.<ref name="pmid15880332">{{cite journal | vauthors = Ventura HO, Mehra MR | title = Bloodletting as a cure for dropsy: heart failure down the ages | journal = Journal of Cardiac Failure | volume = 11 | issue = 4 | pages = 247–52 | date = May 2005 | pmid = 15880332 | pmc =  | doi = 10.1016/j.cardfail.2004.10.003 }}</ref> Along with bloodletting, [[Jean-Baptiste de Sénac]] in 1749 recommended [[opiate]]s for acute shortage of breath due to heart failure.<ref name="pmid13437417"/> In 1785, [[William Withering]] described the therapeutic uses of the [[foxglove]] genus of plants in the treatment of edema; their extract contains [[cardiac glycoside]]s, including digoxin, still used today in the treatment of heart failure.<ref name="pmid15685783"/> The [[Mercurial diuretic|diuretic effects of inorganic mercury salts]], which were used to treat [[syphilis]], had already been noted in the 16th century by [[Paracelsus]];<ref name="pmid8672051">{{cite journal | vauthors = Eknoyan G | title = Historical note. On the contributions of Paracelsus to nephrology | journal = Nephrology, Dialysis, Transplantation | volume = 11 | issue = 7 | pages = 1388–1394 | date = July 1996 | pmid = 8672051 | doi = 10.1093/ndt/11.7.1388 | doi-access = free }}</ref> in the 19th century they were used by noted physicians like [[John Blackall]] and [[William Stokes (physician)|William Stokes]].<ref name="Ventura">{{cite web |vauthors=Ventura HO |title=A Glimpse of Yesterday: Treatment of "Dropsy" (Slides with Transcript) |url=https://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/557959 |website=Medscape |access-date=26 February 2021 |ref=Ventura |archive-date=30 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170930071331/http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/557959 |url-status=live }}</ref> In the meantime, [[cannula]]e (tubes) invented by English physician [[Reginald Southey]] in 1877 was another method of removing excess fluid by directly inserting into swollen limbs.<ref name="pmid15880332"/>

Use of organic mercury compounds as diuretics, beyond their role in syphilis treatment, started in 1920, though it was limited by their [[Route of administration#Parenteral|parenteral]] route of administration and their side-effects.<ref name="Ventura"/><ref name="pmid16760707">{{cite journal | vauthors = Ventura HO | title = History of heart failure | journal = Congestive Heart Failure | volume = 12 | issue = 3 | pages = 178 | year = 2006 | pmid = 16760707 | pmc =  | doi = 10.1111/j.1527-5299.2005.04956.x | doi-access = free }}</ref> Oral mercurial diuretics were introduced in the 1950s; so were thiazide diuretics, which caused less toxicity, and are still used.<ref name="Davis_2000"/><ref name="Ventura"/> Around the same time, the invention of echocardiography by [[Inge Edler]] and [[Carl Hellmuth Hertz|Hellmuth Hertz]] in 1954 marked a new era in the evaluation of heart failure.<ref name="Davis_2000"/> In the 1960s, [[loop diuretics]] were added to available treatments of fluid retention, while a patient with heart failure received the first [[heart transplant]] by [[Christiaan Barnard]].<ref name="Davis_2000"/><ref name="Ventura"/> Over the following decades, new drug classes found their place in heart failure therapeutics, including [[vasodilation|vasodilators]] like [[hydralazine]]; [[renin-angiotensin system]] inhibitors; and [[beta-blockers]].<ref name="pmid22528171">{{cite journal | vauthors = Lüderitz B | title = [On the history of heart failure] | journal = Clinical Research in Cardiology Supplements | volume = 6 | issue =  | pages = 2–5 | date = May 2011 | pmid = 22528171 | pmc =  | doi = 10.1007/s11789-011-0026-2 | s2cid = 116245349 }}</ref><ref name="pmid18610472">{{cite journal | vauthors = Swedberg K | title = History of Beta blockers in congestive heart failure | journal = Heart | volume = 79 | issue = Suppl 2 | pages = S29-30 | date = June 1998 | pmid = 18610472 | pmc = 1766483 | doi = 10.1136/hrt.79.2008.29s }}</ref>