Differential clinical characteristics and outcome predictors of acute heart failure in elderly patients

Heart failure as a predictor of functional dependence in hospitalized elderly

“…Still, after admission, 64% of elderly developed dependence on one or more ADL, and about a quarter were dependent for 4-5 ADL (24) . In a multicenter study of 942 elderly patients diagnosed with HF in ten Spanish hospitals, it was found that the functional deterioration of ADL was advanced, showing that 20.8% of the elderly had some functional impairment and less than 40% were fully independent (2) . The number of elderly patients with HF in hospitals is increasing, so that the care for these patients needs to be standardized in nursing care practice in Brazil and worldwide.…”

“…It is estimated that an increase in the incidence and prevalence of HF in individuals aged between 60 and 80 years will occur in the coming years, causing the number of new cases to double and the number of cases to be about 10 times higher (1) . In addition to representing one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality among the elderly, HF is a major cause of hospitalization and demand for emergency services among the elderly in Brazil and throughout the world (2)(3) . Clinical manifestations of HF in the elderly may be different from those observed in adults, depending on the specific aging characteristics (4) .…”

How does a clinical trial fit into the real world? The RELAX-AHF study population into the EAHFE registry

“…Statistical analysis was done by the Kaplan-Meier log-rank test. In fact the second curve (down) is a composition using figure 5B of the RELAX clinical trial [6] in which the survival curves for the EAHFE-RELAX A and B are incorporated. No statistics used, provided only for qualitative (visual) comparison validity, i.e.…”

“…To date, two 1-month periods (April 2007 and May 2009, EAHFE-1 and EAHFE-2 spots) and one 2-month period (November-December 2011, EAHFE-3 spot) of consecutive patient inclusion have been carried out, and 5845 single episodes entered into the EAHFE database. Extensive details are published elsewhere [5][6][7]. Briefly, patient inclusion is done by the attending emergency physicians (all given specific instructions about the protocol during a meeting held the week before the recruitment period), and all cases are double checked by the principal investigator of each centre previous to final patient inclusion into the database.…”

“…There are few data on the estimation as to how far or close clinical assays fit into the general population suffering from the disease investigated. In this regard, over the last 7 years we have built up the EAHFE (Epidemiology of Acute Heart Failure in Emergency Departments) registry [5][6][7]. It includes all consecutive patients attended at 29 Spanish emergency departments (ED) due to acute-decompensated heart failure (ADHF).…”