The European Society of Cardiology has published a full rewrite of its heart failure guidelines, changing how the condition is categorized and which drugs count as core treatment. The document was released online in the European Heart Journal and presented at ESC Congress 2026 in Munich, replacing recommendations that had stood since 2021.
Classification is not an academic exercise for people living with heart failure. The category a patient falls into determines which medicines a cardiologist is expected to offer, which referrals get triggered and, in many systems, what insurers cover. A boundary that moves a few percentage points can change a prescription.
