title: Prognostic scores in heart failure - Critical appraisal and practical use.
abstract: Survival in patients with heart failure in the last two decades has significantly improved, owing to availability of new drugs, devices, and technologies. However, these new therapeutic tools are often costly and not without attendant risks. Thus, accurate and reproducible risk stratification is required to assess appropriateness of therapy. Although a growing body of evidence has characterized various predictors of poor outcomes, the application of comprehensive prognostic models in clinical practice remains limited. Herein, we critically evaluate the utility of prognostic scores in heart failure, discussing the strategies to select the most efficient and appropriate risk estimator in the individual patient.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento Cardiovascolare, Azienda Ospedaliera Papa Giovanni XXIII, Bergamo, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ferrero
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento Cardiovascolare, Azienda Ospedaliera Papa Giovanni XXIII, Bergamo, Italy.
authors.forename: Attilio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iacovoni
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento Cardiovascolare, Azienda Ospedaliera Papa Giovanni XXIII, Bergamo, Italy; Internal Medicine Department, Pavia University, Pavia.
authors.forename: Emilia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: D'Elia
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Muthiah
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vaduganathan
authors.affiliation: FROM Fondazione per la Ricerca, Azienda Ospedaliera Papa Giovanni XXIII, Bergamo, Italy.
authors.forename: Antonello
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gavazzi
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento Cardiovascolare, Azienda Ospedaliera Papa Giovanni XXIII, Bergamo, Italy. Electronic address: msenni@hpg23.it.
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Senni
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D019540:Area Under Curve; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012372:ROC Curve; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Heart failure; Outcomes; Prognosis