• Heart failure (HF) is a clinical syndrome marked by elevated filling pressures to maintain acceptable cardiac output. Current guidelines use left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) to distinguish between reduced (HFrEF; LVEF < 40%), preserved (HFpEF; LVEF > 50%) and midrange ejection fractions (HFmrEF; LVEF between 40–49%).

• Beta blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, angiotensin receptor neprilysin inhibitors (ARNI), sodium-glucose transporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors and cardiac resynchronization therapy, among other therapies, improve outcomes in HFrEF. HFpEF management focuses on comorbidity management with recent data showing benefit from SGLT-2 inhibitor, empagliflozin.

Hunger is an embodied experience which impacts the physical and mental state. This chapter explores the impact of starvation. The physical effects of starvation on the body are wasting, swelling (edema), susceptibility to disease, and eventually death. The mental effects of starvation include behavioral changes, food obsession, and irritability. All of these were observed by individuals in the ghetto who recorded this as diarists or in some cases physicians studying the impact of the lack of food on their patients. This also chapter explores food fantasy resulting from hunger and humor which arose in response to food deprivation.

The bone marrow (BM) extracellular matrix (ECM) is often inconspicuous, and hence neglected in a normal BM trephine biopsy (BMB), but it has essential functions in the homeostasis of bone and the maturation of haematopoiesis (see Chapter 2). The ECM surrounds the bony trabeculae, which are covered by osteoblasts and osteoclasts, the latter an essential component of the stem cell niche, and embeds the maturing haematopoietic cells. It is rich in hyaluronic acid, type III collagen (reticulin), fibronectin and laminin.