Browsing by Subject "acute heart failure"
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Item Acute Dyspnea and Decompensated Heart Failure(Elsevier, 2018-02) Pang, Peter S.; Collins, Sean P.; Gheorghiade, Mihai; Butler, Javed; Emergency Medicine, School of MedicineThe majority of patients hospitalized with acute heart failure (AHF) initially present to the emergency department (ED). Correct diagnosis followed by prompt treatment ensures optimal outcomes. Paradoxically, identification of high risk is not the unmet need, given nearly all ED AHF patients are hospitalized; rather, it is identification of low-risk. Currently, no risk-stratification instrument can be universally recommended to safely discharge ED patients. With the exception of diagnosis, management recommendations are largely expert opinion, informed by existing evidence and tradition. In the absence of robust evidence, we propose a framework for management to guide the busy clinician.Item Acute Heart Failure Risk Stratification in the Emergency Department: Are We There Yet?(Elsevier, 2018) Russell, Frances; Pang, Peter S.; Emergency Medicine, School of MedicineItem Approach to Acute Heart Failure in the Emergency Department(Elsevier, 2017-09) Hunter, Benton R.; Martindale, Jennifer; Abdel-Hafez, Osama; Pang, Peter S.; Department of Emergency Medicine, School of MedicineAcute heart failure (AHF) patients rarely present complaining of ‘acute heart failure.’ Rather, they initially present to the emergency department (ED) with a myriad of chief complaints, symptoms, and physical exam findings. Such heterogeneity prompts an initially broad differential diagnosis; securing the correct diagnosis can be challenging. Although AHF may be the ultimate diagnosis, the precipitant of decompensation must also be sought and addressed. For those AHF patients who present in respiratory or circulatory failure requiring immediate stabilization, treatment begins even while the diagnosis is uncertain. The initial diagnostic workup consists of a thorough history and exam (with a particular focus on the cause of decompensation), an EKG, chest X-ray, laboratory testing, and point-of-care ultrasonography performed by a qualified clinician or technologist. We recommend initial treatment be guided by presenting phenotype. Hypertensive patients, particularly those in severe distress and markedly elevated blood pressure, should be treated aggressively with vasodilators, most commonly nitroglycerin. Normotensive patients generally require significant diuresis with intravenous loop diuretics. A small minority of patients present with hypotension or circulatory collapse. These patients are the most difficult to manage and require careful assessment of intra- and extra-vascular volume status. After stabilization, diagnosis, and management, most ED patients with AHF in the United States (US) are admitted. While this is understandable, it may be unnecessary. Ongoing research to improve diagnosis, initial treatment, risk stratification, and disposition may help ease the tremendous public health burden of AHF.Item Day vs night: Does time of presentation matter in acute heart failure? A secondary analysis from the RELAX-AHF trial(Elsevier, 2017-05) Pang, Peter S.; Teerlink, John R.; Boer-Martins, Leandro; Gimpelewicz, Claudio; Davison, Beth A.; Wang, Yi; Voors, Adriaan A.; Severin, Thomas; Ponikowski, Piotr; Hua, Tsushung A.; Greenberg, Barry H.; Filippatos, Gerasimos; Felker, G. Michael; Cotter, Gad; Metra, Marco; Department of Emergency Medicine, IU School of MedicineBackground Signs and symptoms of heart failure can occur at any time. Differences between acute heart failure (AHF) patients who present at nighttime vs daytime and their outcomes have not been well studied. Our objective was to determine if there are differences in baseline characteristics and clinical outcomes between AHF patients presenting during daytime vs nighttime hours within an international, clinical trial. Methods This is a post hoc analysis of the RELAX AHF trial, which randomized 1,161 AHF patients to serelaxin vs placebo, both in addition to usual AHF therapy. Prespecified end points of the primary trial were used: dyspnea, 60-day heart failure/renal failure rehospitalization or cardiovascular (CV) death, and 180-day CV death. Both unadjusted and adjusted analyses for outcomes stratified by daytime vs nighttime presentation were performed. Results Of the 1,161 RELAX-AHF patients, 775 (66.8%) patients presented during daytime and 386 (33.2%) at nighttime. Baseline characteristics were largely similar, although daytime patients were more likely to be male, have greater baseline body weight, have higher New York Heart Association class, have history of atrial fibrillation, and have more peripheral edema compared with nighttime patients. No differences in dyspnea relief or 60-day outcomes were observed. However, daytime presentation was associated with greater risk for 180-day CV death after adjustment (hazard ratio 2.28, 95% CI 1.34-3.86; c statistic = 0.82, 95% CI 0.78-0.86). Conclusion In this secondary analysis of the RELAX-AHF trial, baseline characteristics suggest that daytime-presenting patients may have more gradual worsening of chronic HF. Patients with AHF who presented at night had less risk for 180-day CV death, but similar risk for 60-day CV death or rehospitalization and symptom improvement for patients who presented during the daytime.Item Design and rationale of a randomized trial: Using short stay units instead of routine admission to improve patient centered health outcomes for acute heart failure patients (SSU-AHF)(Elsevier, 2018-09) Fish-Trotter, Hannah; Collins, Sean; Danagoulian, Shooshan; Hunter, Benton; Li, Xiaochun; Levy, Phillip D.; Messina, Frank; Pressler, Susan; Pang, Peter S.; School of NursingNearly 85% of acute heart failure (AHF) patients who present to the emergency department (ED) with acute heart failure are hospitalized. Once hospitalized, within 30 days post-discharge, 27% of patients are re-hospitalized or die. Attempts to improve outcomes with novel therapies have all failed. The evidence for existing AHF therapies are poor: No currently used AHF treatment is known to improve long-term outcomes. ED treatment is largely the same today as 40 years ago. Admitting patients who could have avoided hospitalization may contribute to adverse outcomes. Hospitalization is not benign; patients enter a vulnerable phase post-discharge, at increased risk for morbidity and mortality. When hospitalization is able to be shortened or avoid completely, certain risks can be mitigated, including risk of medication errors, in-hospital falls, delirium, nosocomial infections, and other iatrogenic complications. Additionally, patients would prefer to be home, not hospitalized. Furthermore, hospitalization and re-hospitalization for AHF predominantly affects patients of lower socioeconomic status (SES). Avoiding hospitalization in patients who do not require admission may improve outcomes and quality of life, while reducing costs. Short stay unit (SSU: <24 h, also referred to as an ‘observation unit’) management of AHF may be effective for lower risk patients. However, to date there have only been small studies or retrospective analyses on the SSU management for AHF patients. In addition, SSU management has been considered ‘cheating’ for hospitals trying to avoid 30-day readmission penalties, as SSUs or observation units do not count as an admission. However, more recent analyses demonstrate differential use of observation status has not led to decreases in re-admission, suggesting this concern may be misplaced. Thus, we propose a robust clinical effectiveness trial to demonstrate the effectiveness of this patient-centered strategy.Item Diagnosing Acute Heart Failure in Patients With Undifferentiated Dyspnea: A Lung and Cardiac Ultrasound (LuCUS) Protocol(Wiley, 2015-02) Russell, Frances M.; Ehrman, Robert R.; Cosby, Karen; Ansari, Asim; Department of Emergency Medicine, IU School of MedicineObjectives The primary goal of this study was to determine accuracy for diagnosing acutely decompensated heart failure (ADHF) in the undifferentiated dyspneic emergency department (ED) patient using a lung and cardiac ultrasound (LuCUS) protocol. Secondary objectives were to determine if US findings acutely change management and if findings are more accurate than clinical gestalt. Methods This was a prospective, observational study of adult patients presenting to the ED with undifferentiated dyspnea. The intervention consisted of a 12-view LuCUS protocol performed by experienced emergency physician sonographers. The primary objective was measured by comparing US findings to the final diagnosis independently determined by two physicians blinded to the LuCUS result. Acute treatment changes based on US findings were tracked in real time through a standardized data collection form. Results Data on 99 patients were analyzed; ADHF was the final diagnosis in 36%. The LuCUS protocol had sensitivity of 83% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 67% to 93%), specificity of 83% (95% CI = 70% to 91%), positive likelihood ratio of 4.8 (95% CI = 2.7 to 8.3), and negative likelihood ratio of 0.20 (95% CI = 0.09 to 0.42). Forty-seven percent of patients had changes in acute management, and 42% had changes in acute treatment. Observed agreement for the LuCUS protocol was 93% between coinvestigators. Overall, accuracy improved by 20% (83% vs. 63%, 95% CI = 8% to 31% for the difference) over clinical gestalt alone. Conclusions The LuCUS protocol may accurately identify ADHF and may improve acute clinical management in dyspneic ED patients. This protocol has improved diagnostic accuracy over clinical gestalt alone.Item Effects of serelaxin in acute heart failure patients with renal impairment: results from RELAX-AHF(Springer, 2016-09) Liu, Licette C. Y.; Voors, Adriaan A.; Teerlink, John R.; Cotter, Gad; Davison, Beth A.; Felker, G. Michael; Filippatos, Gerasimos; Chen, Yakuan; Greenberg, Barry H.; Ponikowski, Piotr; Pang, Peter S.; Prescott, Margaret F.; Hua, Tsushung A.; Severin, Thomas M.; Metra, Marco; Department of Emergency Medicine, IU School of MedicineBackground Serelaxin showed beneficial effects on clinical outcome and trajectories of renal markers in patients with acute heart failure. We aimed to study the interaction between renal function and the treatment effect of serelaxin. Methods In the current post hoc analysis of the RELAX-AHF trial, we included all patients with available estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) at baseline (n = 1132). Renal impairment was defined as an eGFR <60 ml/min/1.73 m2 estimated by creatinine. Results 817 (72.2 %) patients had a baseline eGFR <60 ml/min/1.73 m2. In placebo-treated patients, baseline renal impairment was related to a higher 180 day cardiovascular (HR 3.12, 95 % CI 1.33–7.30) and all-cause mortality (HR 2.81, 95 % CI 1.34–5.89). However, in serelaxin-treated patients, the risk of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality was less pronounced (HR 1.19, 95 % CI 0.54 –2.64; p for interaction = 0.106, and HR 1.15 95 % CI 0.56–2.34 respectively; p for interaction = 0.088). In patients with renal impairment, treatment with serelaxin resulted in a more pronounced all-cause mortality reduction (HR 0.53, 95 % CI 0.34–0.83), compared with patients without renal impairment (HR 1.30, 95 % CI 0.51–3.29). Conclusion Renal dysfunction was associated with higher cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in placebo-treated patients, but not in serelaxin-treated patients. The observed reduction in (cardiovascular) mortality in RELAX-AHF was more pronounced in patients with renal dysfunction. These observations need to be confirmed in the ongoing RELAX-AHF-2 trial.Item Effects of Serelaxin in Patients with Acute Heart Failure(Massachusetts Medical Society, 2019-08) Metra, M.; Teerlink, J. R.; Cotter, G.; Davison, B. A.; Felker, G. M.; Filippatos, G.; Greenberg, B. H.; Pang, P. S.; Ponikowski, P.; Voors, A.A.; Adams, K. F.; Anker, S. D.; Arias‑Mendoza, A.; Avendaño, P.; Bacal, F.; Böhm, M.; Bortman, G.; Cleland, J. G. F.; Cohen-Solal, A.; Crespo-Leiro, M. G.; Dorobantu, M.; Echeverría, L. E.; Ferrari, R.; Goland, S.; Goncalvesová, E.; Goudev, A.; Køber, L.; Lema‑Osores, J.; Levy, P. D.; McDonald, K.; Manga, P.; Merkely, B.; Mueller, C.; Pieske, B.; Silva-Cardoso, J.; Špinar, J.; Squire, I.; Stępińska, J.; Van Mieghem, W.; von Lewinski, D.; Wikström, G.; Yilmaz, M. B.; Hagner, N.; Holbro, T.; Hua, T. A.; Sabarwal, S. V.; Severin, T.; Szecsödy, P.; Gimpelewicz, C.; Emergency Medicine, School of MedicineBACKGROUND Serelaxin is a recombinant form of human relaxin-2, a vasodilator hormone that contributes to cardiovascular and renal adaptations during pregnancy. Previous studies have suggested that treatment with serelaxin may result in relief of symptoms and in better outcomes in patients with acute heart failure. METHODS In this multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled, event-driven trial, we enrolled patients who were hospitalized for acute heart failure and had dyspnea, vascular congestion on chest radiography, increased plasma concentrations of natriuretic peptides, mild-to-moderate renal insufficiency, and a systolic blood pressure of at least 125 mm Hg, and we randomly assigned them within 16 hours after presentation to receive either a 48-hour intravenous infusion of serelaxin (30 μg per kilogram of body weight per day) or placebo, in addition to standard care. The two primary end points were death from cardiovascular causes at 180 days and worsening heart failure at 5 days. RESULTS A total of 6545 patients were included in the intention-to-treat analysis. At day 180, death from cardiovascular causes had occurred in 285 of the 3274 patients (8.7%) in the serelaxin group and in 290 of the 3271 patients (8.9%) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.98; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83 to 1.15; P=0.77). At day 5, worsening heart failure had occurred in 227 patients (6.9%) in the serelaxin group and in 252 (7.7%) in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.75 to 1.07; P=0.19). There were no significant differences between the groups in the incidence of death from any cause at 180 days, the incidence of death from cardiovascular causes or rehospitalization for heart failure or renal failure at 180 days, or the length of the index hospital stay. The incidence of adverse events was similar in the two groups. CONCLUSIONS In this trial involving patients who were hospitalized for acute heart failure, an infusion of serelaxin did not result in a lower incidence of death from cardiovascular causes at 180 days or worsening heart failure at 5 days than placebo.Item Effects of serelaxin on the outcome of patients with or without substantial peripheral edema: A subgroup analysis from the RELAX-AHF trial(Elsevier, 2017-08) Gimpelewicz, Claudio; Metra, Marco; Cleland, John G. F.; Szecsödy, Peter; Chang Wun, Chuan-Chuan; Boer-Martins, Leandro; Cotter, Gad; Davison, Beth A.; Felker, G. Michael; Filippatos, Gerasimos; Greenberg, Barry H.; Pang, Peter S.; Ponikowski, Piotr; Severin, Thomas; Voors, Adrian A.; Teerlink, John R.; Department of Emergency Medicine, IU School of MedicineBackground Acute heart failure (AHF) is a heterogeneous disorder, with most of the patients presenting with breathlessness along with varying degrees of peripheral edema. The presence of peripheral edema suggests that volume overload is the cause of decompensation leading to AHF, whereas breathlessness in the absence of edema may reflect a “vascular phenotype.” This analysis investigated the characteristics, therapeutic response, and outcome of patients with AHF, with and without overt peripheral edema in the RELAX-AHF trial. Methods Physician-assessed edema scores at baseline were used to categorize the population into those with no/mild edema (score 0 or 1+) and moderate/severe edema (score 2+ or 3+). The effect of serelaxin vs placebo was assessed within each subgroup. Results Patients with moderate/severe edema (n = 583; 50.5%) were more likely to have severe dyspnea, orthopnea (>30°), rales (≥1/3), and elevated jugular venous pressure (>6 cm) than the patients with little or no peripheral edema (n=571; 49.5%). The relative benefits of serelaxin in terms of reduction in breathlessness, lower diuretic requirements, decreased length of initial hospital stay and days in intensive care unit/cardiac care unit, and improved prognosis (180-day cardiovascular and all-cause mortality) were generally similar for patients with or without peripheral edema. However, because patients with moderate/severe peripheral edema had worse outcomes, the absolute benefit was generally greater than in patients with no/mild edema. Conclusions Overall, patients with AHF and moderate/severe peripheral edema have a worse prognosis but appear to receive similar relative benefit and perhaps greater absolute benefit from serelaxin administration.Item Feasibility of Serial 6-min Walk Tests in Patients with Acute Heart Failure(MDPI, 2017-09-11) Collins, Sean P.; Thorn, Michael; Nowak, Richard M.; Levy, Phillip D.; Fermann, Gregory J.; Hiestand, Brian C.; Cowart, Tillman Douglas; Venuti, Robert P.; Hiatt, William R.; Foo, ShiYin; Pang, Peter S.; Emergency Medicine, School of MedicineBackground: Functional status assessment is common in many cardiovascular diseases but it has undergone limited study in the setting of acute heart failure (AHF). Accordingly, we performed a pilot study of the feasibility of the six-minute walk test (6MWT) at the emergency department (ED) presentation and through the hospitalization in patients with AHF. Methods and Results: From November 2014 to February 2015, we conducted a multicenter, observational study of ED patients, aged 18–85 years, whose primary ED admission diagnosis was AHF. Other criteria for enrollment included a left ventricular ejection fraction ≤40%, systolic blood pressure between 90 and 170 mmHg, and verbal confirmation that the patient was able to walk >30 m at the baseline, prior to ED presentation. Study teams were uniformly trained to administer a 6MWT. Patients underwent a baseline 6MWT within 24 h of ED presentation (Day 1) and follow-up 6MWTs at 24 (Day 2), 48 (Day 3), and 120 h (Day 5). A total of 46 patients (65.2% male, 73.9% African American) had a day one mean walk distance of 137.3 ± 78 m, day 2 of 170.9 ± 100 m, and day 3 of 180.8 ± 98 m. The 6MWT demonstrated good reproducibility, as the distance walked on the first 6MWT on Day 3 was similar to the distance on the repeated 6MWT the same day. Conclusions: Our pilot study demonstrates the feasibility of the 6MWT as a functional status endpoint in AHF patients. A larger study in a more demographically diverse cohort of patients is necessary to confirm its utility and association with 30-day heart failure (HF) events.