How long before hospital admission do the symptoms of heart failure decompensation arise?

OBJECTIVE: to identify the signs and symptoms of decompensation of heart failure (HF) and the duration of time to hospital admission. METHOD: this is a cross-sectional study with adult patients hospitalized for decompensated HF in a teaching hospital located in southern Brazil from July to October 2017. Data collection was performed through a structured questionnaire that included sociodemographic, clinical signs and symptoms of HF. In the data analysis, the following tests were applied: t-Student, Mann Whitney U-Test, Chi-Square Tests. RESULTS: 94 patients, aged between 42 and 98 years old (mean of 71.2 years old) were included. The most prevalent signs and symptoms before emergency admission were dyspnea (79.8%), cough (29.8%), orthopnea (27.7%), edema (23.4%), and fatigue (22.3%). The median time from onset of signs and symptoms to arrival in the emergency room is fatigue and edema 7 days, orthopnea 5 days, cough 4 days and dyspnea 3 days. CONCLUSION: the set of classic signs and symptoms of decompensation of HF occurs around seven days before the emergency search and dyspnea is the worsening that leads the patient to a hospital emergency.