The New York University Pediatric Heart Failure Index: a new method of quantifying chronic heart failure severity in children.
OBJECTIVE
The assessment of the severity of heart failure in pediatric patients is handicapped by the subjectivity of diagnostic parameters. This study evaluated the feasibility of a new standardized heart failure index, the New York University Pediatric Heart Failure Index (NYU PHFI), to quantify the degree of heart failure in a selected pediatric population.


RESULTS
The index is a weighted, linear combination of scores based on symptoms, physical signs, and medical regimen. Overall, healthy children (n = 12) scored very low (0 to 2) on this index. Mean scores of children (<2 years; mean age, 4.8 months; n = 12) with a left-to-right shunt lesion declined from 11.4 (SD +/- 4.1, P <.001, 2-tailed test) before surgery to 1.8 (SD +/- 1.3) after surgical correction of their cardiac defects. The average inter-observer correlation coefficient was 0.95 (P <.001), despite a wide range of scores.


CONCLUSIONS
The NYU PHFI appears to be a reliable and convenient instrument for measuring heart failure severity in children. These initial results support further testing in broader diagnostic and age groups and over longer periods.
Connolly
D
D
New York University, School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Pediatric Cardiology, New York, New York, USA.
Rutkowski
M
M
Auslender
M
M
Artman
M
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D009518:New York; D011379:Prognosis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index