Heart failure misnamed

Heart failure by another name would sound less bitter

I wish I could write a witty line to parody Shakespeare.  I believe, however, that this sentence contains good sense.  Heart failure sounds deadly serious, almost terminal.  I shall never forget, following a day in hospital after an attack of atrial fibrillation and a battery of tests, the visit to the consultant cardiologist to review treatment.  I learned I had heart failure.  Both my wife and I were shattered.  I knew I had COPD and got short of breath on too much exertion, and knew I had an irregular pulse.   But the diagnosis of heart failure was new and devastating.  I am a doctor, however, and soon recovered a sense of perspective.  

I read up about heart failure.  I read the British Heart Foundation booklet and the excellent book I have mentioned before, Kasper and Knudson’s "Living well with heart failure."  It is subtitled  “The misnamed, misunderstood condition.” Their title “Living well with heart failure” carries this positive connotation. Heart failure is misnamed I believe because the word failure is so negative, almost terminal.  Heart failure, though serious, is compatible with a happy and useful life when treated effectively.  The problem is that the misnamed term is so well established that it won’t be shifted easily, and there is no obvious alternative.  Comparable to COPD, I would tentatively suggest CCD as a less emotive term than heart failure, and I hope sufficiently accurate.  CCD would stand for chronic cardiac dysfunction.