Editorial doi 10.15171/ijep.2019.15 Department of Cardiology, Alborz University of Medical Sciences Held: Updates on Heart Failure Hossein Karim 1,2 , Shahrooz Yazdani 1,2 , Fariba Rajabi 1,2 , Mohammad Zibaei 3,4* ID 1 Department of Cardiology, School of Medicine, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran 2 Clinical Research Development Center, Shahid Rajaei Educational and Therapeutic Center, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran 3 Department of Parasitology and Mycology, School of Medicine, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran 4 Evidence-based Phytotherapy and Complementary Medicine Research Center, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran *Corresponding Author: Mohammad Zibaei, Email: zibaeim@sums.ac.ir Int J Enteric Pathog. 2019 August;7(3):68-69 http://enterpathog.abzums.ac.ir © 2019 The Author(s); Published by Alborz University of Medical Sciences. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. H eart failure is recognized as one of the most important causes of morbidity and mortality among human population. It is an advanced heart problem and one of the main causes of death and burden in many developing countries. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction is more common in women than men and therefore accounts for at least half the cases of heart failure in women. 1 Te prevalence of heart failure is between 0.4%-4.3% in the general population and between 2%-20% in the elderly population over 75 years of age. Te rate of heart failure has been estimated to increase by two times in two decades. In Iran, the one- year mortality rate of heart failure was 32%, while the rate has fallen in other countries. 2 Several risk factors including age, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, stroke, atrial fbrillation, ventricular tachycardia, bundle branch blocks, percutaneous coronary intervention, coronary artery bypass grafing, and chest pain have been associated with the increase in heart failure and a decrease in the use of medications such as thrombolytic, acute coronary syndrome inhibitors and diuretics have been linked with decreasing the recurrence of myocardial ischemia in Iran. 2 Terefore, further studies are needed to investigate the causes of diferent mechanisms and targeted therapies in heart failure in the patients. For this purpose, the frst symposium of the new fndings on heart failure (Updates on Heart Failure) was held on July 11, 2019 at the Hall of School of Medicine, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Islamic Republic of Iran (Figure 1). Te opening ceremony was started by Quran recitation followed by National Anthem of I.R. Iran, and the message of Prof. Feridoun Noohi, the president of Shaheed Rajaei Cardiovascular and Medical Research Center (Figure International Journal of Enteric Pathogens Received July 26, 2019; Accepted August 4, 2019 Published Online August 30, 2019 Figure 1. Poster Announcing the First Symposium on Heart Failure Updates. 2). Dr. Hossein Karim, scientifc secretary of the frst Symposium of Updates on Heart Failure had a welcome message in which he also proposed a report on the selection process of titles for the symposium (Figure 3). Diferent topics were covered in the program including guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic heart failure, acute myocarditis diagnosis and treatment, novel treatments and interventions in pulmonary hypertension, sarcopenia, cardiac