Method helps determine heart failure patients' risks

A new analysis describes different classifications of patients who are hospitalized with acute heart failure based on various characteristics, which may help guide early decisions regarding triage and treatment.

For the analysis, investigators examined information from the ESC Heart Failure Long-Term Registry, a prospective, observational study collecting hospitalization and 1-year follow-up data from 6629 acute heart failure patients.

"We found substantial differences in patients' outcomes when we categorized patients by clinical profile at admission and by certain clinical parameters, such as systolic blood pressure and congestion-perfusion status," said Dr. Ovidiu Chioncel, lead author of the European Journal of Heart Failure study.