Low haemoglobin in patients with chronic heart failure: common but commonly ignored

Although studies from two decades ago documented
the association of low haemoglobin with chronic
heart failure (CHF), the potential for an important
pathophysiological link has largely been ignored until recently.
In 2000 Silverberg and colleagues reported on a cohort of
patients (n=142) attending a specialist nephro-cardiology clinic.
1 Anaemia (haemoglobin < 12 g/dL) was present in over half the patients and was associated with symptom severity.