Na protyazhenii poslednikh desyatiletiy vo vsekh zarubezhnykh stranakh nezavisimo ot ekonomicheskoy i politicheskoy situatsii nablyudaetsya neuklonnyy rost chisla sluchaev khronicheskoy serdechnoy nedostatochnosti (KhSN). Mozhno s uverennost'yu skazat', chto mir stolknulsya s epidemiey, v znachitel'noy mere vliyayushchey na sotsial'nuyu i ekonomicheskuyu sfery zhizni obshchestva. S tsel'yu izucheniya dannoy problemy v 35 regionakh Rossii bylo zaplanirovano i realizovano v 2003 godu pervoe vserossiyskoe prospektivnoe epidemiologicheskoe issledovanie KhSN po obrashchaemosti za meditsinskoy pomoshch'yu "EPOKhA-O-KhSN". Nasha rabota vystupila v kachestve sostavnoy chasti etogo protokola (Orenburg i Orenburgskaya oblast') i pomogla vyyavit' ne tol'ko naibolee vazhnye etiologicheskie prichiny i prognosticheskie faktory KhSN, no i "razryvy" mezhdu dostizheniyami sovremennoy meditsinskoy nauki i povsednevnoy klinicheskoy praktikoy.