AimsThe ESC-HF Pilot survey was aimed to describe clinical epidemiology and 1-year outcomes of outpatients and inpatients with heart failure (HF). The pilot phase was also specifically aimed at validating structure, performance, and quality of the data set for continuing the survey into a permanent Registry. MethodsThe ESC-HF Pilot study is a prospective, multicentre, observational survey conducted in 136 Cardiology Centres in 12 European countries selected to represent the different health systems across Europe. All outpatients with HF and patients admitted for acute HF on 1 day per week for eight consecutive months were included. From October 2009 to May 2010, 5118 patients were included: 1892 (37%) admitted for acute HF and 3226 (63%) patients with chronic HF. The all-cause mortality rate at 1 year was 17.4% in acute HF and 7.2% in chronic stable HF. One-year hospitalization rates were 43.9% and 31.9%, respectively, in hospitalized acute and chronic HF patients. Major regional differences in 1-year mortality were observed that could be explained by differences in characteristics and treatment of the patients. ConclusionThe ESC-HF Pilot survey confirmed that acute HF is still associated with a very poor medium-term prognosis, while the widespread adoption of evidence-based treatments in patients with chronic HF seems to have improved their outcome profile. Differences across countries may be due to different local medical practice as well to differences in healthcare systems. This pilot study also offered the opportunity to refine the organizational structure for a long-term extended European network.--

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Chronic heart failure is a multisystem disorder in which intestinal morphology, permeability, and absorption are modified. Increased intestinal permeability and an augmented bacterial biofilm may contribute to the origin of both chronic inflammation and malnutrition.

Background-In patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), hyperuricemia is a common finding and is associated with reduced vasodilator capacity and impaired peripheral blood flow. It has been suggested that the causal link of this association is increased xanthine oxidase (XO)-derived oxygen free radical production and endothelial dysfunction. We therefore studied the effects of XO inhibition with allopurinol on endothelial function and peripheral blood flow in CHF patients after intra-arterial infusion and after oral administration in 2 independent placebo-controlled studies. Methods and Results-In 10 CHF patients with normal serum uric acid (UA) levels (315Ϯ42 mol/L) and 9 patients with elevated UA (535Ϯ54 mol/L), endothelium-dependent (acetylcholine infusion) and endothelium-independent (nitroglycerin infusion) vasodilation of the radial artery was determined. Coinfusion of allopurinol (600 g/min) improved endothelium-dependent but not endothelium-independent vasodilation in hyperuricemic patients (PϽ0.05). In a double-blind, crossover design, hyperuricemic CHF patients were randomly allocated to allopurinol 300 mg/d or placebo for 1 week. In 14 patients (UA 558Ϯ21 mol/L, range 455 to 743 mol/L), treatment reduced UA by Ͼ120 mol/L in all patients (mean reduction 217Ϯ15 mol/L, PϽ0.0001). Compared with placebo, allopurinol improved peak blood flow (venous occlusion plethysmography) in arms (ϩ24%, Pϭ0.027) and legs (ϩ23%, Pϭ0.029). Flow-dependent flow improved by 58% in arms (Pϭ0.011). Allantoin, a marker of oxygen free radical generation, decreased by 20% after allopurinol treatment (PϽ0.001). There was a direct relation between change of UA and improvement of flow-dependent flow after allopurinol treatment (rϭ0.63, PϽ0.05). Conclusions-In hyperuricemic CHF patients, XO inhibition with allopurinol improves peripheral vasodilator capacity and blood flow both locally and systemically.