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Brief Report| Volume 23, ISSUE 10, P770-774, October 2017

Unanswered Questions in Contemporary Heart Failure

Published:July 06, 2017DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cardfail.2017.06.009
Unanswered Questions in Contemporary Heart Failure
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      Abstract

      Objective

      The epidemiology of heart failure (HF) is changing. This study aimed to describe questions that arise during the routine care of HF patients that are unanswered by the current literature and describe how the type and focus of these questions has changed over time.

      Methods

      Investigators from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute–sponsored Heart Failure Apprentice Network collected and categorized questions from 5 academic hospitals over 12 months. A total of 174 unanswered questions were collected and analyzed.

      Results

      Compared with 2004, there were more unanswered questions about “whether” to use therapies and fewer about “how” to use therapies. There were fewer questions about what therapeutic targets, therapy adjustment, and combination therapies. There were more questions about whether or how to stop therapies and how to add therapies back. Newly prominent topics, not observed in 2004, including novel therapeutics, refractory ventricular tachycardia, right heart failure, and nutrition/frailty, accounted for 24% of questions.

      Conclusions

      Compared with 2004, there are fewer unanswered questions about how to use, adjust, and combine therapies. There were more unanswered questions about whether and how to stop therapies. Almost 25% of unanswered questions dealt with topics indicative of more advanced disease which were not observed in 2004.

      Key Words

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      Article info

      Publication history

      Published online: July 06, 2017
      Accepted: June 30, 2017
      Received in revised form: June 6, 2017
      Received: March 3, 2017

      Footnotes

      Funding: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Heart Failure Network training grant (NIH/NHLBI U01HL084877).

      Identification

      DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cardfail.2017.06.009

      Copyright

      © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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