BioImpedentiometry, Lung UltraSound and cONgestion in Heart Failure

Increased congestion leads to the clinical manifestation of heart failure (dyspnea, peripheral edema) and is considered the leading cause of hospital admissions and death among patients with HF Preclinical recognition of congestion in HF patients through home monitoring is crucial to prevent acute exacerbations and hospital admissions. Daily body weight, vital signs and fluid balance give only an indirect assessment of the level of congestion. Deuterium oxide dilution is the non-invasive reference method for total body water assessment. Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and chest ultrasound are simple, non-invasive techniques potentially applicable for home monitoring of congestion by non-physicians. BIA is a noninvasive method for the study of body composition based on the measurement of body electrical resistance; BIA may allow measurement of whole body and segmental, e.g. pulmonary, fluids. However data on the value of BIA for the monitoring of HF patients are still scarce, inconclusive and relative to small cohorts of patients. Lung ultrasound (LUS) through evaluation of B-lines, reverberation artifacts in the presence of extravascular lung water has been proposed as a semiquantitative tool to assess pulmonary congestion. B lines showed a good correlation with multiple indicators of congestion. The aim of this study is to validate whole body and segmental BIA and lung ultrasound vs the gold standard deuterium dilution technique to monitor changes in systemic and pulmonary congestion after treatment in the setting of acute heart failure (AHF Group 1) and advanced chronic heart failure (ad-CHF Group 3) using as controls stable chronic heart failure outpatients (CHF Group 2). Enrolled patients will simultaneously undergo clinical assessment of congestion (weight gain, pulmonary rales, jugular venous pressure, peripheral edema, chest X-ray), routine laboratory, BIA and pulmonary and subcutaneous ultrasound and deuterium administration as follows Group 1 (Acute Heart Failure - AHF) Patients will be assessed within 24 hours of admission for acute heart failure (T0), and at hospital discharge after an average of 10 days (Td). Group 2 (Chronic Heart Failure - CHF) Patients will be assessed during a programmed outpatient visit (T0) and after 10 ± 3 days (T1). Group 3 (Advanced Chronic Heart Failure -Ad-CHF) Ad-CHF patients on periodic levosimendan undergo monthly levosimendan infusions in the outpatient clinic. Baseline assessments will be performed the day of levosimendan administration, before infusion start(T0) and after 80 +/- 12 hours, i.e at the peak haemodynamic effect of levosimendan (Tp). In all patient groups, vital status and hospital admissions or emergency department visits and their cause will be assessed after 6 months by telephone follow-up.