Prospective Registry of Acute Heart Failure

Context: Heart failure is associated with a high morbidity and mortality rate and represents a significant worldwide public health burden. In European countries, the total amount of the expenses related to heart failure represents 1 to 2% of the total health budget with 75% spent during hospitalizations, making heart failure the most expensive pathology in cardiology. Acute heart failure (AHF) has a poor prognosis despite improvements in therapy. Hospital mortality is 2 to 4% the risk of death or readmission in the six months following hospitalization is high. Patients hospitalized for heart failure represent a very heterogeneous population in terms of etiologies, clinical presentations and/or co-morbidities. Consequently, this implies variable outcomes in terms of morbidity and mortality, probably due to their different prognostic factors. The precise spectrum of etiologies and prognostic factors of AHF in non selected populations has not been exhaustively studied and only a few predictive models concerning AHF have been validated. Ischemic heart disease, valvulopathy, arrhythmias, infections, hypertension and lack of therapeutic compliance are often quoted as being the factors triggering heart failure. Some triggering factors (ischemic heart disease, pulmonary infections, acute renal failure) seem to be strongly associated with a poor prognosis in terms of hospital/out-patient mortality and re-hospitalization rate. The complex relation between heart failure and acute renal failure is defined by the cardio-renal syndrome. Thirty percent of patients hospitalized for AHF will be diagnosed with an acute renal failure at admission or with worsening kidney failure during hospitalization. It seems that heart failure and cardio-renal syndrome are two distinct entities with a different prognosis. The type of acute renal failure (functional, renal or post-renal) in these patients and the prognostic value of these etiologies is still not firmly established. A thorough d