Association of insulin and GH/IGF-1 derangements and heart failure: a narrative review

Heart failure (HF) is still one of the most common causes of death today. The vast majority of heart diseases end up leading to HF, which therefore has a high prevalence in the adult population (on average 1–2%), and which increases enormously (over 10%) after the age of 65, becoming the most frequent cause of hospitalization for these subjects. It is therefore necessary to increase efforts to deepen our understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms that lead to HF and its worsening, particularly with regard to hormonal-metabolic derangements as contributors to HF development and progression. This, in the hope of being able, in the near future, to intervene on them, reducing the prevalence of this pathology and its economic impact on countries’ healthcare spending. To this aim, we performed a narrative review of the scientific literature on the interactions between both insulin and the growth hormone/insulin-like growth factor-1 axis and the cardiovascular system, and in particular, to verify the role that these hormones may play in the development and negative progression of HF.