The labyrinth of nomenclature in Cardiology. Eternal dilemmas and new challenges on the horizon in the personalized medicine era

The quest for accurate terminologies and classifications is a constant source of dilemmas in medicine and science and a particularly topical and controversial subject in the field of cardiovascular diseases. The Cardiology community is torn between the concept of personalized medicine and ambiguous diagnostic categories, often describing non‐entities. The debate on what are the best classifications is ignited by the exponential increase in knowledge which parallels with a constant rising in complexity. The intent to capture the intrinsic either physiological or pathological features of each individual may clash with the need to categorize as no classification can represent the complexity of reality beyond a certain extent. In this viewpoint we will discuss how terminology and classifications evolved in the field of cardiovascular diseases and what are the main nomenclature deadlocks. We will start from the philosophical basis of this enduring debate to eventually approach practical dilemmas, using the example of cardiomyopathies and heart failure (HF).