title: Patient characteristics from a regional multicenter database of acute decompensated heart failure in Asia Pacific (ADHERE International-Asia Pacific).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Heart failure (HF) is a leading cause of hospitalization. Although a number of multicenter international HF hospital registries have been published, there are limited data for the Asia Pacific region.
  
  
  METHODS
  ADHERE (ie, Acute Decompensated Heart Failure Registry) International-Asia Pacific is an electronic web-based observational database of 10,171 patients hospitalized with a principal diagnosis of HF from 8 Asia-Pacific countries between January 2006 and December 2008.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The median age (67 years) varied by more than 2 decades across the region. Fifty-seven percent of patients were male. Ninety percent of patients were Asian and 8.4% were white. Dyspnea was the presenting symptom in 95%, with 80% having documented rales. During the index hospitalization, left ventricular function was assessed in 50%, and intravenous therapies included diuretics (85%), vasodilators (14%), and positive inotropes (15%). In-hospital mortality was 4.8%. Discharge medications included angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and/or angiotensin receptor blockers (63%), β-blockers (41%), and aldosterone antagonists (31%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Compared with other multicenter registries, patients hospitalized with acute HF in the Asia Pacific region tend to present with more severe clinical symptoms and signs and are younger, especially in countries at an earlier stage in their epidemiological transition. Echocardiography and disease-modifying medications are used less often, highlighting potential opportunities to improve outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. john_atherton@health.qld.gov.au
authors.forename: John J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Atherton
authors.forename: Christopher S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Hayward
authors.forename: Wan Azman
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Wan Ahmad
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kwok
authors.forename: Jesus
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jorge
authors.forename: Adrian F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Hernandez
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Robb D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Kociol
authors.forename: Henry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Krum
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000368:Aged; D001210:Asia, Southeastern / Q000453:epidemiology; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012042:Registries