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Introduction Heart failure is the leading cause of hospital admissions for patients above 65 years and accounts for 3% of total national health care budget. 1 The largest share is due to hospitalization and re-hospitalization of these patients. 2 In-hospital mortality is 6.9% which increases to 10% in the following two to three months. One-year mortality is approximately 35% and there is a 24% risk of readmission. 3,4 One of the main reasons for morbidity and mortality is the absence of reliable markers for early recognition of decompensated heart failure and the lack of markers to check efficacy of long term treatments. 5 The methods used clinically for diagnosing heart failure (e.g., shortness of breath, exercise intolerance, weight gain, edema) are not reliable and may even be absent or not recognized in some patients. 6,7 |
