Contemporary outpatient management of patients with worsening heart failure with reduced ejection fraction: Clinical outcome results from the CHART-HF study

Background Based on available data from randomized clinical trials, patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and worsening HF events (WHFE) have substantial disease burden and poor outcomes. WHFE clinical outcome data in non-clinical trial patients, more representative of the US clinical practice, has not been demonstrated. Methods and Results CHART-HF collected data from two complementary, non-clinical trial cohort with HFrEF (LVEF <45%): 1) 1,000 patients from an integrated delivery network and 2) 458 patients from a nationwide physician panel. CHART-HF included patients with WHFE between 2017-2019 followed by an index outpatient cardiology visit ≤6 months, and patients without WHFE in a given year between 2017-2019, with the last outpatient cardiology visit in the same year as the index visit. Compared to patients without WHFE (after covariate adjustment, all p<0.05), patients with WHFE had a greater risk of HF-related hospitalization (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.53-2.40) and next WHFE event (HR: 1.67-2.41) following index visits in both cohorts. Conclusion HFrEF patients with recent WHFE consistently had worse clinical outcomes in these non-clinical trial cohorts. Despite advances in therapies, unmet need to improve clinical outcomes in HFrEF patients with WHFE remains.