Management of acute heart failure: Contribution of daily bedside echocardiographic assessment on therapy adjustment with impact measure on the 30-day readmission rate (JECICA)

There are currently one million heart failure (HF) patients in France and the rate is progressively increases due to population aging. Acute decompensation of HF is the leading cause of hospitalization in people over 65 years of age with a 25% re-hospitalization rate in the first month. Expenses related to the management of HF in France in 2013 amounted to more than one billion euros, of which 65% were for hospitalizations alone. The management of acute decompensation is a challenge, due to the complexity of clinical and laboratory evaluation leading to therapeutic errors, which in turn leads to longer hospitalization, high early re-hospitalization and complications. Therapeutic adjustment, especially diuretic, in the acute phase (during hospitalization) affects early re-hospitalization rates (within 30 days). These adjustments can be based on clinical estimation and laboratory parameters, but echocardiography has been shown to be superior in estimating filling pressures (FP) compared to clinical and laboratory parameters. We hypothesize that a simple daily bedside echocardiographic assessment could provide a reproducible estimation of FP with an evaluation of mitral inflow and the inferior vena cava (IVC). This could allow a more reliable estimate of the true blood volume of the patient and thus lead to a more suitable therapeutic adjustment. This in turn should lead to a decrease in early re-admission rate (primary endpoint) and potentially decrease six-month mortality and rate of complications.