title: I Brazilian Registry of Heart Failure - Clinical Aspects, Care Quality and Hospitalization Outcomes.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Heart failure (HF) is one of the leading causes of hospitalization in adults in Brazil. However, most of the available data is limited to unicenter registries. The BREATHE registry is the first to include a large sample of hospitalized patients with decompensated HF from different regions in Brazil.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Describe the clinical characteristics, treatment and prognosis of hospitalized patients admitted with acute HF.
  
  
  METHODS
  Observational registry study with longitudinal follow-up. The eligibility criteria included patients older than 18 years with a definitive diagnosis of HF, admitted to public or private hospitals. Assessed outcomes included the causes of decompensation, use of medications, care quality indicators, hemodynamic profile and intrahospital events.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 1,263 patients (64±16 years, 60% women) were included from 51 centers from different regions in Brazil. The most common comorbidities were hypertension (70.8%), dyslipidemia (36.7%) and diabetes (34%). Around 40% of the patients had normal left ventricular systolic function and most were admitted with a wet-warm clinical-hemodynamic profile. Vasodilators and intravenous inotropes were used in less than 15% of the studied cohort. Care quality indicators based on hospital discharge recommendations were reached in less than 65% of the patients. Intrahospital mortality affected 12.6% of all patients included.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The BREATHE study demonstrated the high intrahospital mortality of patients admitted with acute HF in Brazil, in addition to the low rate of prescription of drugs based on evidence.
authors.affiliation: Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Denilson Campos de
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Albuquerque
authors.affiliation: Hospital de Messejana, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil.
authors.forename: João David de Souza
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Neto
authors.affiliation: Hospital das Clínicas, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bacal
authors.affiliation: Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
authors.forename: Luiz Eduardo Paim
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Rohde
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Pesquisa, Hospital do Coração, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bernardez-Pereira
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Pesquisa, Hospital do Coração, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Otavio
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Berwanger
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
authors.forename: Dirceu Rodrigues
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Almeida
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000401:mortality* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D008875:Middle Aged; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016896:Treatment Outcome