The Role of Bioimpedance Analysis in Patients With Chronic Heart Failure and Systolic Ventricular Dysfunction

Heart failure (HF) represents a major problem in today's health care landscape and is expected to grow in the next years due to an aging population and improved treatments. In many cases, the evaluation of the volemia status of patients with left ventricular dysfunction is not easy in the outpatient setting, due to limitations of physical examination in stable patients, as well as the tolerance to chronic HF they have. The aim of this study is to determine whether the bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) is useful in determining the real clinical stability of chronic HF, its potential implications for clinical management and patient follow-up, as well as for the adjustment of pharmacological treatment. This study is observational, single-center, single-blind and outpatient. It includes patients with a previous diagnosis of HF and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≤ 40%, who are stable at the time of inclusion. Follow-up is estimated to be 12 months.