Heart failure is a common condition in elderly patients.With further population aging,incidence of heart failure is constantly increasing.When heart failure occurs in this group of patients,clinical symptoms may vary vastly,rendering difficulty for the treatment process and leading to poor efficacy and prognosis.To gain better under-standing on clinical symptoms and signs of heart failure in elderly patients,to provide prevention and treatment against heart failure for elderly patients in terms of nursing care and to improve success rate of salvage treatment as well as nurs-ing quality.Methods Retrospective analysis was performed in 141 patients with heart failure who were treated in our hospital during January 2005 and December 2009.Those aged > 60 years were assigned to elderly group while those aged < 60 years were assigned to non elderly group.These two groups were compared in terms of clinical symptoms, signs and physical and laboratory examinations.Results Clinical symptoms and signs of heart failure tended to be a-typical in elderly patients.Symptoms including cough,sputum,increased heart rate and mental disorder were frequent, and a substantial proportion of patients had pulmonary congestion and edema.Conclusions Prevention and specific nursing measures should be aggressively taken based on the features of heart failure in elderly patients.Frequency of in-spection particularly observation on atypical symptoms should be increased to provide intensive monitoring. Heart failure is a common condition in elderly patients .With further population aging, incidence of heart failure is constantly often .When heart failure occurs in this group of patients, clinical symptoms may vary vastly, rendering difficulty for the treatment process and leading to poor efficacy and prognosis. To gain better under-standing on clinical symptoms and signs of heart failure in elderly patients, to provide prevention and treatment versus heart failure for elderly patients in terms of nursing care and to improve success rate of salvage treatment as well as nurs- ing quality. Methods Retrospective analysis was performed in 141 patients with heart failure who were treated in our hospital during January 2005 and December 2009..Those aged> 60 years were assigned to elderly group while those aged <60 years were assigned to non elderly group. These two groups were compared in terms of clinical symptoms, signs and physical and laboratory examinations. Results of Clinical symptoms and s igns of heart failure tended to be a-typical in elderly patients. Symptoms including cough, sputum, increased heart rate and mental disorder were frequent, and a substantial proportion of patients had pulmonary congestion and edema. Confclusions Prevention and specific nursing measures should be aggressively taken based on the features of heart failure in elderly patients. Frequency of in-spection particularly observation on atypical symptoms should be increased to provide intensive monitoring.