A review of cardiac remodeling

Heart failure is one of the major causes of mortality in developed countries. Usually before heart failure, remodeling occurs to adapt to myocardial wall stress changes or pressure caused by external stimuli. Cardiac remodeling encompass many of the changes associated with the development of heart failure, like genome expression changes, and cellular, molecular and interstitial changes, that causes a change in size, shape and function of the heart after damage. Cardiac remodeling shows the capacity of heart to response and adaptation to a variety of stimuli. The ultimate goal of cardiac remodeling is adaptation to and properly reducing the increased wall stress, and maintaining or even increasing cardiac function. In general, cardiac remodeling is divided into two categories: physiological and pathological, each have different causes and consequences.