A wide range of alterations in the GH/IGF-1 axis have been described to date in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF): reductions in GH levels, reductions in IGF-1 and a pattern of peripheral resistance to GH, in particular in patients with severe heart failure and cardiac cachexia. Our study hypothesis is that an actual status of GH deficiency coexists with CHF in a large percent of patients, and that it may represent a predictor of worse functional status and possibly of a worse prognosis. Aim of this study is to explore the latter hypothesis, comparing the clinical and functional evolution of patients with CHF and GHD with that of a general CHF population.