Heart Failure

Staging of heart failure represents a major issue in clinical practice. In this setting, the MOGE(S) classi fi cation was designed to be similar to the TNM classi fi cation used in oncology. Nevertheless, MOGE(S) nosology differs greatly from the key elements of the TNM classi fi cation, as well as its simplicity and clinical applicability. In fact, MOGE(S) acronym stands for morphofunctional characteristics (M), organ involvement (O), genetic or familial inheritance pattern (G), etiological information (E), and functional status (S). Recently, a new TNM-like classi fi cation for heart failure was proposed. This classi fi cation, named HLM, refers to heart damage arising from an initial stage of impaired systolic or diastolic function, without structural injury, to an advanced stage of biventricular dysfunction (H), different stages of lung involvement (L), and malfunction of peripheral organs such as the kidney, liver, and brain (M). HLM classi fi cation was in fl uenced by the key elements of TNM staging: simplicity, clinical usefulness, ef fi cacy for planning a therapeutic strategy, and ability to determine patient prognosis. HLM classi fi cation seems to be easily applied in the real world and valuable for balancing economic resources with the clinical complexity of patients. (J Am Coll Cardiol 2014;63:1959 – 60) ª 2014 by the American College of Cardiology Foundation