Follow Up of acuTe Heart failUre: a pRospective Echocardiographic and Clinical Study (FUTURE)

Plain-language summary

Acute heart failure (AHF) is defined as rapid onset or rapid worsening of typical signs and symptoms of heart failure (HF) according to the 2016 European Society of Cardiology Guidelines. AHF is the first cause of hospitalization in people over 65 in Western countries, accounting for more than 1 million hospitalizations per year in the USA. This disease has many repercussions not only in terms of mortality and morbidity, but also in terms of resources and infrastructures necessary for these patients' treatment, which constitutes a high economic burden for the national health care system. Even with growing knowledge and means, nowadays, the prognosis of AHF is still poor and there are no proven therapies that lead to long-term benefits in terms of reduced mortality. A better management of the acute phase of decompensation, including the definition of effective diagnostic-therapeutic workup and the use of innovative drugs, could improve the course of the disease, with positive effects on the patient (gain in survival and reduction of admissions), but also on the community (containment of the overall health costs). In recent years, numerous scores have been outlined in various AHF settings, considering only a small number of parameters. Several prognostic models have been developed suggesting how difficult it is to evaluate the AHF patients' prognosis. All this effort towards the development of so numerous prognostic models is justified by the fact that, despite the evolution of treatments, the risk of re-hospitalization and of both intrahospital mortality and after discharge remains high. Several studies have investigated potential prognostic factors that could help evaluating the risk of cardiovascular events, but now there is no accurate and complete prognostic score, particularly for AHF patients. Therefore, to date there are no accurate scores or determinants of short- and medium-term prognosis that allow to improve the management of these patients. This will be an observational, prospective, multicentric, international, non-commercial (non-profit) study. The primary endpoint will be to evaluate the best parameters, among clinical, laboratory and echocardiographic variables assessed within 24 hours from the hospital admission and before discharge, that are able to predict rehospitalization for HF and cardiovascular death at 3 and 6 months, in patients admitted to the cardiology department for acute exacerbation of chronic HF or de novo AHF.

Who can participate

What they're measuring

Trial details