Feasibility of including patients with migration background in a structured heart failure management programme: A prospective case-control study exemplarily on Turkish migrants.

Aims: Structured management programmes deliver optimized care in heart failure patients and improve outcome. We examined the feasibility of including patients with migration background speaking little or no German in a heart failure management programme.

Methods And Results: After adaption of script material and staff to Turkish language we aimed to recruit 300 Turkish and 300 German (control group) patients within 18 months using the operational basis of a local heart failure management programme for screening, contact and inclusion.

Association and prognostic impact of heart rate and micro- albuminuria in patients with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease: results from the PROactive trial.

Aim: Microalbuminuria (MAU) and heart rate are established predictors of an adverse cardiovascular outcome. Recently, heart rate was described as an independent predictor of MAU in hypertensive patients, raising the question of a causal link.

Methods: In post-hoc analysis of the PROactive trial we examined the association of the baseline heart rate and MAU in diabetic patients with cardiovascular disease (n = 5,110, mean age 62 ± 8, 66% male) using logistic regression.

Prognostic impact of NT-proBNP and renal function in comparison to contemporary multi-marker risk scores in heart failure patients.

Background: Multi-marker risk scores accurately predict prognosis in heart failure patients but calculation is complex.

Aims: To compare the prognostic accuracy of the Seattle Heart Failure Survival Score (SHFS) and a model derived from the CHARM programme, with laboratory parameters NT-proBNP and glomerular filtration rate (GFR).

Methods And Results: In a sample of 290 heart failure patients, 39 patients died, 22 were hospitalised with acute heart failure and 4 underwent urgent cardiac transplantation during a median follow-up of 498 days.

NT-pro-BNP is associated with long-term outcome in a heterogeneous sample of cardiac inpatients.

Background: B-type natriuretic peptides (NP) are excellent predictors of mortality in selected patients with heart failure and coronary heart disease. Up to now, the association of NPs with cardiovascular outcome has not been evaluated in multi-morbid populations with a broad spectrum of cardiovascular disease.

Methods: NT-pro-BNP was measured at discharge in 615 inpatients from a cardiology department of a university hospital.