G. HASENFUSS, E. MARBAN Heart failure embodies the central irony of modern medicine. As we have become increasingly adept at treating the major proximate causes of death in Western society, we have effectively converted acute illness into chronic malady. The last twenty years have witnessed a revolution in the treatment of acute coronary syndromes, myocardial infarction in particular. Patients who reach the hospital now have every expectation of leaving alive, but not necessarily well. Our ability to blunt the edge of ischemic insults has en gendered new problems: a new cohort of patients...