Hoong Sern Lim, Agnieszka Tycinska, Clement Delmas, Jacob Eifer Moller, Janine Pöss, Christian Stoppe, Christophe Vandenbriele, Holger Thiele, Kurt Huber, Ingo Ahrens, Christian Hassager, Ovidiu Chioncel, Marco Metra, Matteo Pagnesi, Wiktor Kuliczkowski, Maja Cikes, Linda W van Laake, Alessandro Sionis, Mario Iannaccone, Stephane Manzo-Silberman, Federico Pappalardo, Susanna Price, Thomas F Lüscher, Benedikt Schrage
Cardiogenic shock is a complex clinical syndrome with a high mortality risk. As heterogeneity of patient presentation is high and diagnosis not standardized, a timely diagnosis and thus initiation of treatment are oftentimes not achieved, further worsening the prognosis of affected patients. We therefore propose standardized criteria for the diagnosis of cardiogenic shock, based on three essential pillars: (i) an evidence of end-organ hypoperfusion at rest, (ii) which is primarily caused by haemodynamic abnormalities and a direct consequence of (iii) an underlying cardiac dysfunction commensurate with the state of shock.