Iron deficiency in heart failure: Efficacy and safety of intravenous iron therapy.

Intravenous iron therapy improves symptoms, exercise capacity, and quality of life, at least in the short-to-intermediate time. However, there are still currently no standardized criteria used to define iron deficiency and the underlying mechanism of iron deficiency in CHF remains incompletely understood. Further work is required to improve the ability to identify iron deficiency in patients with CHF and evaluate the effect of iron repletion on hard endpoints including hospitalization and mortality.